Mameko : Mother of Goku
by Aoikami Sarah
Summary: Goku's mother finds her way to earth. She deals with her past, present and future on Earth with the help of her new friends. Silliness abounds. Tragedy strikes. Love blooms. Furiza bites the big one. Again. AU. OCs. Lots of fun.
1. Vegetasei

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

_Note: The character Mameko was developed in RP with members of GirlZ in 2000. Many of the other OCs in this story are the other characters I played with online. Hopefully you can put aside any MS prejudice and just enjoy the story for what it is. If not, then don't bother reading this._

_Written around March 2001 – June 2002, revised and finished in 2008._

**Part One : Vegeta-sei **

They cheered Mameko on as she ran by with her head thrown back, laughing like a child. But the game she played was far from childish. She was an adult and she was in heat.

Seven Saiyajin men raced after her, shoving each other out of the way. Two men fell, punching and kicking each other. The others raced on. Mameko looked back over her shoulder and grinned. The selection was finally to her liking. She was sure her top choice, the kingdom's Chief Science officer, would win. She turned and back pedaled.

"Come on! I can only take one of you!" she goaded them.

As if on cue the men turned on each other. The battle only took a few minutes. The one who wanted her the most: the strongest male stood panting, victorious over the unconscious bodies of his competitors. He wiped blood from his mouth and looked at his prize.

"You're Mameko, right?"

She nodded. "And you're mine, Bardock!" she laughed and leapt into his arms. They flew off to a secluded spot in the northern forest and copulated.

The sun was low in the sky when Mameko awoke. Much to her surprise, he was still there. He was fast asleep. Her desire to leave faded away like a cloud as she watched him breathe. She reached up and touched his face and the deep scar that crossed his cheek. His eyes flicked open.

"You're still here...?" he asked.

"I _should_ go."

"I didn't say I wanted you to."

"We both have things to do, check-ins to make."

"Screw 'em."

She grinned. "This may sound strange, but... will I see you again?"

"Not so strange." He ran a lock of her hair between his fingers. "I want to see you again, too. How's about tomorrow?"

She nodded, and was surprised again when he kissed her before leaving. Anxiously she watched him disappear and lifted into the air herself.

**.x.**

As the months went by, Mameko's belly began to grow round with the child she and Bardock had created. Her responsibilities tapered down as her mobility decreased. Even her work as a scribe would stop altogether in the last month of her pregnancy, one of the last few Saiyajin traditions Furiza had yet to destroy. Mameko had studied history and language since she could first speak, but over the last fifty years Furiza had commissioned the entire Saiyajin race into his Planet Trade Army. Because of his influence, many of the old ways were fading as more average citizens like she were forced to fight for him.

Tensions on Vegeta-sei were high. It seemed every day, Furiza took a little more of their freedom away. First it was their infrastructure; all communications on the planet were controlled by the Planet Trade. Now it was their traditions and culture. Those like Mameko who were wary of the tyrant's aim knew what this was supposed to do; turn the Saiyajin into nothing more than Furiza's foot soldiers.

Despite Furiza's laws forbidding it, Bardock and Mameko decided to bond. Without ceremony and in seclusion, they went through the mysterious Saiyajin ritual which mated them for life.

Bardock had been conscripted into the Planet Trade two years previous. Despite being against it, Bardock entered without opposition at his own King's urging. He was too valuable to His Majesty to throw his life away on principle, he said. He returned one day from a distant conquest half way through Mameko's pregnancy and the couple spent the afternoon in the city, trying to pretend that they weren't illegally bonded.

"Why is it that I can't stand to be without you?" Mameko asked as they walked down the street.

"I hear it's called love," he whispered. "It doesn't always feel so great when I'm away from you."

She clutched his arm. "I'm afraid that one day you won't come back."

Bardock stopped and offered her a seat on a window ledge. He sat down beside her. "I always think that I may not come home. That way, when I do, I'm pleasantly surprised."

Mameko sighed. "When you leave me you think that you won't ever see me again?"

"And I'm pleasantly surprised every time when I do." He smiled and secretly squeezed her hand.

Both of them were startled as a woman ran past, screaming her head off. Following her like thunder was a small group of men. The couple laughed nervously.

"HEY!" an orange skinned soldier with white hair and a thick accent cried and pointed at Bardock. "Why aren't you running?"

Bardock blinked.

"Aren't you supposed to chase after that whore like the monkey you are?"

Bardock growled, but Mameko held on to his arm. With her heart in her throat, she could almost see the future. _'Oh no... please just go away, please!'_ she thought.

"You're bonded, aren't you?!" he barked. "You do know that's illegal?"

Bardock stood. "Mameko, run. Get out of here..." he hissed.

"No. I stay with you."

"Go!"

"No!"

A small group of Furiza's soldiers had gathered. The short, orange man pointed his finger at them. "These two need to be taken into custody. They've bonded and broken Furiza's law."

Bardock growled and yelled for Mameko to run one more time before charging the group and trying his best to fight them. She cursed her helplessness of her condition and watched as he was beaten into unconsciousness. They dragged Bardock off in one direction and Mameko off in another.

**.x.**

Mameko's baby was born several months later. He was healthy and strong, but only registered as a third class Saiyajin warrior according to Furiza's ranking system. Then they were taking him away without even letting her see or name him.

When she had been sedated, Mameko was forced into a barracks with many other Saiyajin women. Her punishment for bonding was to be drafted into the Planet Trade. Their first mission was only two days away.

Mameko regained her senses and couldn't help but cry as she lay on her cot. To her surprise, a hand touched her shoulder.

"Hey, it's ok," a soft, high, woman's voice whispered.

"No, it's not. I'll never see my baby or my mate again, I just know it. I'm a scribe, not a soldier, I'm going to die!"

The other woman smiled sadly. Mameko got the feeling that she had been through something similar. "My name's Beta. Who are you?"

"Mameko." She wiped the tears from her eyes and sat up.

"You better get some sleep."

"Thanks, Beta." She nodded, but sat up for a while and tried to control her grief. She found that it was easier to think that it had all been a dream; that she had never know him and not just had his baby. But the pain, both physical and mental was far too strong to be forgotten.

**.x.**

The next day their supervisor (an alien with no love for Saiyajin) beat Mameko severely when she 'refused to stop weeping.' Mameko was still scrubbing the bathroom with a very small brush late that afternoon when Beta ran in, grabbed Mameko's arm, dragged her into the nearest stall and closed the door behind her.

"Mameko. I saw your mate!"

"What!?" she hissed.

"His name's Bardock, right?"

"Yes!"

"He told me to tell you he loves you very much and that he's looking for your son!"

"Oh, Beta, I don't know what to say," Mameko whispered. Her eyes were framed with black circles and the whites were bloodshot from lack of sleep. She clutched at her side. The beating hadn't helped the healing process. She was afraid that she might have some internal bleeding but the supervisor refused her medical treatment.

"How much more of this do you have to do?" Beta asked.

"Too much," Mameko said and frowned. To her surprise, Beta began to remove her clothes.

"Quick," she whispered. "Swap with me!" The two women were both of similar stature, and had short, brown hair. They could very well pass for the other to their undiscerning commanding officer.

Mameko nodded and did as she said. Beta took her little brush and started working. Mameko went back out to the bunker and laid down on Beta's cot.

Hours later that same night when she had finished the bathroom, Beta woke Mameko and swapped back her clothes.

"Thank you so much," Mameko whispered. "Why are you so nice to me?"

"I know what you're going through," she answered. "They _killed_ my mate." She gave her that same sad smile and rolled over.

"Thank you, Beta," Mameko whispered again. "Thank you."

**.x.**

Bardock stepped out of the round spaceship and stretched. He passed up going to the regen tanks again and wandered off towards the nearest bar.

He got a drink and sat down at a table with men he knew. They were mostly talking about battles and fighting, easy enough to tune out. But one man looked downright devastated. One of his friends, a little further on the way to the land of the drunk asked him what was so wrong.

"My sister, Beta got killed yesterday."

Bardock choked on his drink. "Did you say Beta? As in the 53rd draft platoon, Beta?"

"Yeah, the same. She was my sister. She was an engineer! Just because she bonded she broke the law, it's not right! She didn't stand a chance!" The young man downed his drink and ordered another.

Bardock jumped up and grabbed him. "Do you know where the 53rd's barracks are?!"

"Uh... yeah! sheesh, Buddy! It's in section 12, the east-most row, in the middle!"

Bardock dropped him and dashed out the door.

The barracks were empty. After a frantic search, he found what he truly did not want to find. The first of a line of hastily stenciled foot-lockers was marked 'Beta' and the one next to that was marked 'Mameko.'

He wandered out into the yard and grabbed the first person he saw. "The 53rd..." he demanded. "What happened?!"

"Slaughtered." the Saiyajin man shrugged. "They didn't have a prayer against those monsters, you ask me. They were just a bunch of girls and most of 'em detainees, not warriors."

He threw the callous man to the ground in disgust and blasted off.

His next mission was his last. He returned a changed man, cursed with the gift of foresight. When at last he found his son he wasn't able to stop to save him. In a frenzy he tried to convince someone, anyone that the end was coming. It was too much, too late. Vegeta-sei was destroyed by a single finger on the hand of Furiza.

_To be continued…_


	2. Arrival

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Two - Arrival**

"We will not surrender!" she screamed and charged again. Mameko may not have been raised as a fighter, but all Saiyajin had a fighting spirit. Only two members of the party of six remained, fighting with everything they had to defeat the creatures. They had misjudged their strength. It would have taken ten more Saiyajin to subdue them; ten more elites. They were all 3rd class and they were doomed.

"Beta!" she turned around after blasting another one into oblivion and looked for her comrade.

"Mameko... get out of here," the woman muttered. Her body was hefted above the head of one of the monstrous, green natives. Her tail hung limp. With little effort, the creature pulled and rent the body in half at the waist.

"No!!" Mameko flew at the monster and gave it her all, but her left arm was already broken and her energy level was pitifully low. She knew it was all over, but she would rather go out fighting than turn tail and run.

Just before the darkness closed in, she felt her body being lifted up. Unable to protest, she was carried for some distance. She was placed in a cold, wet substance. As her nose, mouth and ears were covered, she lost consciousness.

**.x.**

Dim. Grey. Muffled voices. A tiny beam of light in her eye.

Mameko blinked rapidly and struggled to renew her senses. A purple shape resolved itself.

The alien in front of her was short and aquatic looking. He held a medical monitor in one hand and a high-powered tazer in the other.

"Ah, you're reviving nicely."

_'Regen tank...'_ she thought. _'I survived?'_ The stench of decaying flesh put her on guard but she was still only semi-conscious.

He continued to poke and prod her with the instrument. "Yes, I was worried. You sure took your sweet time healing. Then we ran into a bit of difficulty. Don't know what caused this change in pigmentation, however. But yes, a fine specimen you are, regardless. I shall have to start all over again, but you're fine, fine..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, blearily. Her eyes focused and she took in her surroundings. "This- this isn't..."

All around her were tall cylinders with frosted windows. Inside each, she could make out the form of a being. Confused and angry, she pulled at her restraints. The purple alien turned on the tazer apprehensively and it crackled menacingly.

"Now, don't try anything funny, _Saiyajin_." He spat her race's name like a curse.

Mameko gritted her teeth. She was a captive. _'Not for long,'_ she thought and quickly snapped the ties which bound her to the wall.

The alien cried out and thrust the tazer at her in panic. She reached out quickly and snapped the arm holding the weapon off like a twig. A pale, white sort of blood flowed profusely from the wound. She then flipped the arm around and tazed him with his own hand. Mameko stepped up to his now crouching, twitching body and twisted his head around. He slumped to the floor, dead.

Mameko panted and stared at her hands for a moment. "Now, where am I?" Still dazed, she stepped over him and wandered out of the room.

It wasn't long before she realized she was on a spaceship and that that ship was hovering in orbit over a small, blue-green plant.

Her stomach rumbled. Frowning, Mameko looked at the foreign controls.

"Computer?" she asked tentatively. To her relief, a tinny voice answered.

"Yes?"

"Take us down."

"Only the captain is cleared to navigate this ship."

_'Machines,'_ she thought angrily. "He's dead. Land, now."

"All right," the computer nonchalantly agreed and began descent.

After a few minutes, the ship's voice called out again. "Captain, we are being hailed on all frequencies."

Mameko's stomach growled in reply. She had been in deep thought as to whether or not to eat her former captor for the last hour or two. "Uh," she said as she wracked her brains for the right. "On screen?"

An image of a smallish, furry man in a military uniform appeared on the large display.

"Attention incoming ship. Identify yourself!"

Mameko raised a brow and bid the computer open her channel. "This is the Hunger Express!" she shouted. "We're coming in."

He looked visibly shocked. "Be you friend or foe?!"

A thin, hunger-crazed, evil grin came over her face. "You'll have to see for yourselves!" she laughed and closed the communication.

When the ship landed, Mameko disembarked and was met by a fairly large and heavily armed military force. She put her fists on her hips and grinned. No one moved. She took a step forward.

"What are you!?" a man's voice boomed from a public address monitor. "Friend or foe?!"

She paused for dramatic effect before shouting back, "FOE!!" and charging into the thick of them.

The battle was extremely one-sided and was going fairly quickly until the backup arrived.

Mameko spotted the four people flying in and stopped her rampage. Their leader called down to her.

"Oi! I think your fight is with us!"

She raised her brows and dusted off her hands. "Did you bring food?"

"No…"

"Then you're right!" She lifted off the ground and followed them away from the ship, much to the surprise of the remaining army.

When they touched down, the leader opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by a shorter man.

"What are you?!" he barked.

"Again with the 'what are you'! How rude you people are," she prattled, her stomach making almost as much noise as her mouth. "Why does no one ever ask who?"

"Answer the question!"

She sighed dramatically. "I'm a Saiyajin."

"You lie!"

Mameko unraveled her tail from around her waist and bellowed in her native tongue. "I am a proud Saiyajin and you are about to find out just what that means!" 

The shorter man charged at her. One of the younger men of the group called out after him. "Papa, no!"

He wasn't listening. They exchanged blows for a minute or so before Mameko discovered that she was hopelessly outclassed by just this one man. The other three were probably her match as well. Some of them seemed strikingly familiar. It didn't matter. She would still rather die fighting on this strange world than return home to Furiza's rule.

Just as the man was powering up to deliver a hefty blow, the leader called out to him.

"Vegeta, Stop!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"Vegeta..." Mameko's eyes went wide. She fell to her knees and looked up at him. "Please forgive my insolence, Ousama!!" 

Vegeta halted his attack and frowned down on her. "Get up!" She stood immediately at attention and waited. "Who are you?" 

"I am Mameko, Saiyajin, 3rd class, Division 14, 53rd draft platoon, Ousama!" 

Trunks made a face, only catching a word here and there of his father's native language. "What's going on, Papa?"

Vegeta held up a dismissive hand and circled and scrutinized the stranger. "Where did you come from?" 

"A PT take-over on the planet Elkye, which I must with deep shame report went horrible awry, Ousama." 

"Stop calling me that. I am Vegeta Ouji."

"Ouji?" she asked, switching as he had to Gal-standard and made eye contact with him. She had had audience with the king only once, but she would never forget how tall and intimidating he was. This man looked like the king, sounded like the king, but he was a few feet shy of his impressive stature. _'Can this be an older son?'_ she thought. _'A rouge brother? The Prince is just a child...'_

"And you cannot be a Saiyajin!" Vegeta yelled and charged at her again.

No one dared interfere until the woman was hardly conscious. Goku flew in front of Vegeta and held out his arms.

"That's enough."

Vegeta growled and backed off. "Calls herself a Saiyajin," he scoffed.

"Papa, you could have asked her to elaborate." Trunks folded his arms and frowned.

"Is she alive?" Goten asked.

"Thankfully." Goku picked her up gently and they followed him as he carried her back to Capsule Corp.

**.x.**

A small crowd gathered around Bulma as she programmed the regen tank. After she bumped into someone for the third time, she screamed for everyone to get out. Only Vegeta remained.

"Honestly, Vegeta. Did you have to go this far?"

"She's weak," was his only answer.

"Let her heal. Then after I talk to her you can beat the poor helpless thing up again," she said as she passed him.

"She wasn't so helpless when she took out those platoons of Earth soldiers."

"What?"

"We found her plowing through a fleet of tanks. I guess she didn't take too kindly to their idea of a welcome wagon."

Bulma frowned and looked at the young woman in the tank. Her eyes were closed, but rather than that same permanent scowl that Vegeta wore when he slept her face looked sad. "Come on. Let her be for now."

**.x.**

A few hours later, Mameko stirred. She opened her eyes, shocked to feel the warm liquid against them. 'How did I get back here?!' she thought wildly and struggled to get out. The pain that coursed through her limbs reminded her of the encounter with the man who called himself 'Prince'. She began to think that she _had_ died on the battle field and this was simply some form of hellish afterlife. Mameko thrust her good arm through the plate-glass and it burst into a million shatter-proof pieces. The liquid sloshed out on to the floor. She ripped free of the restraints, found her tattered armor, put it back on and staggered out of the room.

Frustrated, confused and tired, she grew impatient trying to find a door and blasted a window out. Mameko shielded her eyes against the bright, yellow sun and wandered out onto the lawn.

"Oi!" a girl's voice called out from behind her. "Just where do you think you're going, impostor?"

Mameko turned and looked at the girl. She was short and had black hair. She was wearing a blue and white set of Saiyajin armor and her dark tail wagged back and forth anxiously.

"I'm- I'm not an impostor," Mameko replied and held her head. "Who are you?" Her voice held that same strange, almost British accent that Vegeta touted when he spoke Gal-standard.

"I'm Koshi. Father says you can't possibly be a Saiyajin."

"You're one. Why do people think I'm lying?!" Mameko grabbed her tail and pulled at it a little. She winced at the slight pain. "See! It's not coming off!"

"But," Koshi raised a brow. Her arms were tightly folded. "It's blue."

"Huh?" Mameko looked at her tail. "What the _hell_?!"

Koshi couldn't help but laugh out loud at the horrified look on the young woman's face. "Hahahaha! You mean this is news to you?!"

"Well yes! It was brown the last time I checked!" Mameko pulled the spiky hair on her head down and was shocked to find that it too was a dusty, blue color. Koshi continued to laugh. Mameko growled and took a fighting stance. "Quit laughing at me, you jerk!"

"How _dare_ you speak to me like that! If you _are_ a Saiyajin then I am your Princess!"

"What?! Not this again," Mameko groaned. "What's going on? Where's that man who looks like the King who calls himself Prince?"

"You know what the king looked like?"

"Yes I... wait," Mameko relaxed her shoulders, "_Looked_ like?"

"I never knew my grandfather. He's been dead a long time."

Mameko stared at this girl. She slowly shook her head. "This is either hell or I have completely lost my mind!"

"There is no way you could have known what my father looked like," Vegeta said as he stepped out of the hole Mameko had blasted in the side of his house.

"Of _course_ there is! I was even given audience with him once, in person. He congratulated me on a job well done for transcribing ancient royal ordinances just a few years ago."

"I was a child when the ordinances were revised and transcribed. Father made me read them until I had memorized them." Vegeta, visibly shaken, walked up to her and examined her torn armor. It was decorated with the Saiyajin Empire logo Q as bold as the day it was printed, and the blood stains of battle. "I am Vegeta. Prince of the Saiyajin and your leader. I do not know where you came from of how it is that you are here, but I believe you."

Mameko shuddered. "What happened to me? Why are you grown, Oujisama?"

"It appears that time has somehow left you behind. What was the last thing that happened to you?"

Mameko furrowed her brows and recanted what little she had experienced. When she was done she looked up and saw Koshi burrowing a hole in her with eyes. Vegeta paced away and thought.

"While you were healing, my woman and son did some research on your ship. It seems that this purple thing that you so neatly disposed of was a collector."

"A what?" Koshi asked, interested.

"He had an example of nearly every species of sentient being I've ever seen on board that ship. Something went wrong though, and all the life support systems shut down. They were all dead. You somehow survived this."

"He _collected_ me?!" Mameko cried. "Did he do this to my hair?!"

"No. That was probably an after effect of the cryogenic process."

Mameko sank to the ground. "Cryogenic. As in, stasis?"

He nodded. "You've been paused for roughly 50 Earth years... 25 to you and me."

Mameko stared at the ground.

"So, she's technically in her seventies?" Koshi whispered to herself.

"What can I do now? My life is in your hands, My Prince." She bowed deeply, despite the pain of her wounds and to hide the tears of despair that arose.

Vegeta thought for a second. "Koshi. Get this woman a room. She will stay with us until further arrangements can be made. You," he addressed the newcomer.

She stood up, eyes wide. "Yes, Oujisama!"

"You are to do whatever Koshi, Trunks, my woman, Bulma or I say. You are too old for school." Vegeta tilted his head. "Do you have any useful skills other than combat?"

"I was a scribe and a historian."

"Ah yes," Vegeta barked at her in the rough Saiyajin tongue. "Excellent. You shall teach my offspring Saiyago." 

"Yes, Oujisama!" She barked back.

Koshi raised a brow. "But, Father! I know Saiyago!"

"You language skills are poor because I do not have the patience to teach you. Her diction is very clear and precise."

"Yes, Father."

"Now come on. Your mother will start screaming if we're late for dinner again."

"_Dinner_!" Mameko cried. "I'm so hungry!!"

Vegeta walked back through the hole in the wall. "After dinner, fix this."

"Yes, Father."

"Yes, Oujisama."

Koshi turned to Mameko and made a face. "So. I guess you'll be staying here for a while."

"If that's all right with you, Koshi-sama?"

Koshi blinked a few times. "Koshi-sama..." she grinned. "Nice ring to it. Come on. Let's go eat."

_Note: Koshi was the GirlZ version of Bra, played by Lindsay from Ohio._

**.x.**

There was a nice, sunny lounge on the fourth floor that served as a cozy classroom for the three. Trunks tried to stay awake in the warm sun and Koshi sat bolt upright, eyes glued to their teacher. "Ok," Mameko wrung her hands and pulled at the strange, new, cotton tee-shirt she had been given to wear. "I think the first thing I need to know is how much Saiyago you know already. Trunks-sama, what can you tell me," she said as she looked around the room for a good subject, "about the chair you're sitting in?"

"Well..." he looked at it. "The chair is lazy and weak. Er, b-b-blue." 

Mameko blushed. "Well, I don't think that's what you meant to say. Koshi-sama, how about you? Can you describe the door?" She said and pointed to the electronic sliding door to the room.

"The, er... I don't know 'door', is a bastard." 

"Ok! So you've had no formal teaching. That's all right. We'll start with the basics."

Bulma walked by the study room and paused as she heard the harsh, guttural sounds coming from within. She listened at the door for a minute. Her teenage children were... singing?

"Very good!" Mameko cheered in Saiyago. "I must confess to you, that song is what very young Saiyajin children sing in order to learn their numbers!"

Koshi and Trunks raised their brows.

"Good thing this is a private lesson!" Trunks laughed.

"Yes, I suppose so, Trunks-sama."

"Mameko," he laughed again. "You don't have to call me that. I'm not royalty. I'm just a teenage boy."

"Oh, sorry, Trunks...-san?"

He nodded.

"You can call _me_ sama," Koshi grinned. "I quite like it and unlike my unworthy brother, I consider myself every bit as much royalty as my father."

Trunks rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Koshi-sama," Mameko smiled and continued with the lesson.

It was nearly dinnertime when Koshi, Trunks and Mameko emerged from the study room.

"Tomorrow I'll try to speak nothing but Saiyago like your Earth teachers do with, what does this planet call the language we're speaking? We call it Gal-standard."

"English," Koshi said and followed them down to the kitchen.

Dinner was take-out, as usual. Mameko puzzled over the gyudon and devoured anything with Teriyaki sauce on it. Afterwards, the various members of the family wandered off to their own pursuits. Trunks had a date with his girlfriend Muzai, Bulma wanted to watch Takashi's Castle and Koshi had a couple hours booked in the gravity chamber. Vegeta took a Sapporo out of the fridge and looked at Mameko. She was standing a respectful distance from her prince and seemed to want something.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Oujisama, I don't mean to be rude, please excuse my impudence." 

He looked at her funny, took a sip of his beer and asked her again in Saiyago. "What is it?" 

"I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much of an imposition, if I could borrow a space ship? The one I arrived in was totaled in the little skirmish I incited, heh..." 

"To go where?" he asked, puzzled.

"Well, to go home," she said cheerfully.

Vegeta put the beer down. He let out a breath, slowly and looked into her hopeful eyes. "No." 

Mameko's face fell. She averted her eyes. "Please excuse me, Oujisama. I did not mean to make such an outrageous request." 

Vegeta walked away.

Mameko looked up. He walked into the living room and stood behind the sofa his wife was sitting in. Vegeta bent at the waist and muttered something to her. The television clicked off.

Bulma stood and looked at Mameko. She bit her lip and beckoned for her to come over.

**.x.**

"It's..." Mameko whispered. "It's all gone? The entire planet... destroyed?"

Bulma nodded. She didn't take her eyes off of her. Vegeta had disappeared at the start of this conversation. Bulma wondered if Saiyajin were taught to kept their emotions locked up inside of them, or if Mameko would prove that Vegeta was just like that to begin with.

"How long ago?"

"Forty three years ago."

Mameko's mind managed to do the math. "A short while after I was placed in stasis," she muttered.

"Mameko, if you want to cry, do it. I won't think you're weak."

"I-I..." Mameko stuttered. "I'm just in shock, I mean, it's _gone_? Vegeta-sei is no more?!"

Bulma nodded. "I'm sorry, Mameko." She was surprised to see tears roll down the Saiyajin's cheeks. Her tail flopped restlessly from side to side.

"I just don't believe it, Bulma-san." She looked up suddenly, anger splashed across her face. "Please tell me someone has destroyed Furiza!!"

Bulma gasped. "Yes! Yes... we did."

Mameko nodded. "Good. Good." She stood. "Bulma-san, please excuse me." Mameko walked out of the room. She passed Vegeta who had remained just out of sight without looking up and left the house.

**.x.**

The ship was still there. Mameko touched down and walked around the mortar craters the army had greeted her with. Inside, the small, purple alien's body was decaying. The stench didn't bother her. She walked through the corridors and touched the glass tubes, each containing a specimen, collected as she had been. Each being was thawed out and long dead.

She leaned up against one of these and slumped down to sit on the floor.

"I was there..." she said to no one. "Last week. They sent me off to this supposedly harmless planet. Even before it went horribly wrong, I wanted to go home. I never wanted to be in the Planet Trade. Furiza didn't give us a choice and he- he..." she couldn't hold it in anymore. "He eliminated us!!"

Mameko beat her fists against the floor. "I wanted to live! I wanted to live to see the day when the Saiyajin would rise against him! Now, I wish I was dead! Do you hear me, you stiffs!" she cried at the corpses. "Why did I live?! I've lost _everything_ I've ever known! I thought it was bad enough that I should be 76 years old, but now I have no home, no people, no nothing! All I have are my memories and they're fresh! I was there!" she trailed off, sobbing heavily.

A pair of boots clicked down the corridor. Mameko looked up and was only a little surprised to see her prince. "I was _just_ there..." she whispered.

"I know. I envy you."

She realized that standing before her was a Saiyajin who had been without his people for most of his lifetime. She stood up and wiped her face. "This blue-green world is so strange, Oujisama. How did you get used to it?"

He shrugged. "It grows on you. Come here," he said and lead her out of the ship.

As Mameko choked back the last sob of her despair, tears of joy sprung from her eyes. The sun was setting in the western sky and a warm, red glow spread across either end of the zenith: the same color red as the sky on Vegeta-sei.

"Sometimes." Vegeta put his hands in his pockets. "Little things like this help."

They stood and watched the sun dip down and the indigo of night slide over the rouge. "You are welcome to stay here as long as you like, Mameko."

**.x.**

A week passed and Mameko was beginning to fit in, as much as a blue haired, blue tailed Saiyajin could fit in on Earth. She had a nice room at Capsule Corp. A and the Briefs family treated her very kindly.

Late one afternoon, Trunks, Koshi and she emerged from the study room chatting in Saiyago. Mameko laughed. "You guys don't have to keep it up! Class is over!"

"We know, Maks." Trunks smiled.

Koshi raised a brow. "Maks?" Mameko gave him a similar look.

"Mameko the Aoi Kami [blue hair Saiyajin," he shrugged. "It's a nick name."

"Ah." Koshi shrugged and turned to go downstairs. "I can't wait to have dinner tonight, Mameko. Those Saiyajin recipes are great."

"Yeah, great..." Trunks muttered dreamily.

"Trunks, I thought you said it was too heavy for you?" Koshi turned around to see her brother's eyes wide and his mouth curled up into a demented, almost evil-looking smile.

"Ko-Koshi-sama..." Mameko stuttered. "Help." She was panting. Her hands were curled up into fists. "Hold him back. I can't... I can't... I..."

"What the hell's going on?! Trunks, knock it off!"

"He..." Mameko panted, "He can't help it. Hold him back, _please_!" She seemed like she was in pain.

As Trunks lunged for the woman, Koshi jumped on him and shook him, vigorously. "Knock it off!" He wasn't listening. Koshi reeled back and punched her out-of-control brother. He fell to the floor, unconscious. "What's wrong with you, Mameko?"

The woman's eyes were locked on something just past Koshi's left shoulder. She turned to see her father standing in the hallway with an amused smirk on his face.

"Ooh... Oujisama..." Mameko moaned.

"Oh please. You know very well that I'm bonded."

Mameko pouted but slinked over to him anyway. "I know, but I just can't help myself!"

With a flick of the wrist, Vegeta gave her a quick chop to the neck and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Alright, what the hell is going on?!" Koshi screamed.

Vegeta's amusement faded. He made a face and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Shit," he hissed. "I didn't think I'd have to deal with this."

Koshi frowned and squinted at him, waiting for an answer. Trunks began to stir.

"Take her out to the middle of nowhere," Vegeta commanded. "Make sure you go _north_! Far from the bloody Son house. When she wakes up, ask _her _what's wrong with her."

"But, Father..."

"Now!"

Koshi grumbled and did as she was told.

Trunks came to just as Koshi left, carrying Mameko under her arm like a sack of potatoes.

"What happened?" he mumbled and rubbed his face.

"You let your hormones get the best of you," Vegeta scoffed and walked away.

"What? Papa?" he asked and chased after him. "Papa, wait. Wait! What did I do?!"

**.x.**

Mameko groaned as she came to. Koshi's highly displeased image became clear.

"Koshi-sama, where are we?"

"The middle of freaking nowhere. Now why did my father tell me to bring you here? Why was my brother turned into a salivating moron!?"

Mameko blinked at her for a moment. "Y- you don't know?"

"NO!"

"Forgive me, Koshi-sama!" Mameko sat up and folded her legs under her. "I'm having my cycle."

"You mean your period?"

"What's that?" Mameko asked.

Koshi made a face. "Why don't you just tell me about your 'cycle' or whatever."

"Alright. Every other year or so for about 20 years, Saiyajin women are fertile. The cycle only lasts only a few days. At that time, we give off a pheromone that drives men crazy. They fight over us and the victor gets to procreate. It helps ensure that the strongest possible children are born. Not all heats end in copulation and sometimes even the ones that do don't end in pregnancy. Your father was unaffected by my pheromones because he has bonded with your mother."

Koshi blinked at her. She thought for a moment. "That's _different_. But it explains why I haven't... er... Never mind. So," Koshi calmly changed the subject and sat down next to her. "Does this mean you can't come home for a week or so?"

Mameko nodded. "I'll be all right. There are plenty of animals out here to eat."

"Have you ever had this happen before?"

"Oh yes, once before."

"Did men fight over you?"

Mameko smiled at her inquisitiveness. "Yes. One man won and we mated." She continued, knowing the innocent girl would only be satisfied by the truth. "Furiza would not let Saiyajin bond. He banned all of our traditions. But we bonded anyway." Mameko smiled, but it soon faded. "He must really be dead. I wouldn't have reacted like that otherwise."

"Were you married?"

"Oh, no. We weren't allowed. But I did have his son."

Koshi was shocked. "You had a baby?"

Mameko nodded. "He was taken from me when I delivered him and put immediately into the planet trade. I didn't even get to name him."

Koshi gasped as she realized that everyone in Mameko's past, like her father's, were all dead. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"Well, it did happen forty some odd years ago!" Mameko laughed sadly and stood up. She strolled away and looked up at the bright, blue sky. "I miss my mate terribly. I hadn't seen him for almost six months when I was collected. He was so smart and strong. I really loved him. In a world where love was being frowned upon more and more I wished that one day we'd all be together like my grandparents' generation had been before Furiza arrived." She shrugged.

"I'm so sorry..." Koshi whispered again. She had grown fond of her strange house-guest, but now realized that there was a great deal she didn't know about her. "Well, if you need anything..." she said and stood up to leave.

"Thank you, Koshi-sama."

**.x.**

It was getting dark when Mameko started a little fire and spitted a wild boar for her dinner. Her tail wagged back and forth in anticipation of her meal.

_'Maybe I need this chance for a new life,'_ she thought. _'Maybe...'_

She watched the fire crackle and rested her head on her folded arms. "I miss you, Bardock. Keep our son safe for me."

As the fire died down later that night, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. Feeling out, she decided it must be a tiny animal because it had no detectable life energy, but she couldn't smell it. Mameko held still and concentrated. Her tail was stiff. Finally she could take it no more.

"Who's there!?" she barked.

A figure moved out of the shadows. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt and an open flannel shirt. He pushed his thin, black hair back behind an earinged ear and folded his arms.

"You're trespassing," he said in a soothing, unthreatening voice. "And I really don't appreciate the poaching and the fire much either."

"Do you own these lands?" Mameko asked, irritated.

"Yes. 300 hundred acres of this mountain. Now please, put your fire out completely and leave."

"I would, except that I have nowhere to go." Mameko stood and glared at him. "And I'd like to see you make me." Her tail wagged back and forth.

The young man raised a brow. "A Saiyajin?" he asked. "My, you're a rarity."

"You know what I am?"

"Yes. And I think it would be fun to _make_ you leave." He took a stance and motioned for her to come at him.

A little exercise was just what the doctor ordered. Mameko nodded and charged. She was stunned by his swiftness, baffled by his blocks and jumped back after just a few quick hits.

"What the hell are you?!" she cried and held her aching fists.

He frowned. "That's not very nice. And you're not very impressive. Are you sure you're a Saiyajin?"

"Of course I'm sure!" she bristled. "I am Mameko! The last full breed Saiyajin woman! Who and what are you?!"

"I'm Juunanagou the last Jinzouningen man!" he shouted, mocking her.

_'Artificial,'_ Mameko thought. _'No wonder I couldn't feel him out.'_ She closed her eyes. "Unn," she moaned. "Not now!"

The young man raised a brow. "What's the matter? Had enough?"

"Mm, no..." she grinned. "I want more… _much more_!" Mameko leapt forward and tackled Juunanagou.

"I, er... _hello_!" he cried, startled and fell to the ground, pinned by the overly-friendly Saiyajin. "Um... I, well, that is I, um, heheheh... ok, then!" Juunanagou might have been artificial, but he was still a man.

**.x.**

Mameko woke in another strange place and slapped her forehead. "I gotta stop doing this!" she thought out loud. She found her dress and put it on. Her stomach grumbled as she wandered out of the bedroom.

"Morning." His smooth, silky voice startled her.

"Oh! You!" she cried, clutching her heart. "Don't do that!"

He laughed lightly. "Sorry. Did you sleep well?"

Mameko nodded. "Thank you for," she cleared her throat. "And the hospitality." She walked towards the door.

"I thought you said you have nowhere to go?"

"Just for a week. I live at The Capsule Corporation but I can't go back or I'll jump on Vegeta and Trunks like I jumped on you."

"Come again?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"I'm in heat."

"Oh. Neat." Juunanagou picked a flannel shirt off of a coat rack and made for the door. "You're more than welcome to stay here. I haven't had anyone 'jump' on me in a while, not to mention a visitor."

Mameko raised a brow. "Really? Are you sure? Because I'll probably jump on you a couple more times. Not that I can help it, mind you!"

"Sounds good. Make yourself at home. I'll be back later. Gotta go to work." He hefted an axe over his shoulder and opened the door.

"An android lumberjack?" she asked, puzzled.

"A _Gentleman_ android lumberjack. I don't _have_ to do this. I just like to."

"Ok." She shrugged. He smirked at her and walked out the door. "Oh, um, Juunanagou?" Mameko called after him. He turned and looked back. "Thank you."

"No prob."

**.x.**

The week passed quickly. Bulma arranged for a welcome-home party for Mameko. They were waiting for Goku to show up, as usual. This was fine with Bulma. Mameko had called home the day before to say she would be back by dinner time, but had not yet arrived.

"What could be keeping her?" Bulma wondered. "If I had to live out in the woods for a week I'd _run_ home!"

"You wouldn't survive a _day_ out in the woods," Vegeta muttered.

"Excuse me!?" she yelled. "I did very well for myself all that time on Namek, thank you very much!!!"

Koshi rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. She hadn't told anyone about her last conversation with the blue haired Saiyajin, but she had thought about it all week. She could not imagine herself having a child, let alone having it taken away from her. As soon as she could, Koshi wanted to begin learning not just the Saiyajin language, but all the culture and history that even her father had either forgotten or been too young to retain.

**.x.**

Juunanagou whined and buried his head in Mameko's coarse, blue hair. "I don't want you to go."

"I must." She squeezed him tightly before pulling away and looking up into his clear, artificial, blue eyes. "I'll come back to visit. A lot."

"I'll miss you," he whispered and they kissed good-bye.

She flew home slowly with a permanent grin on her face. She had a place to live, full of people who cared about her and now, she had a love as well. The hollow pain of losing Bardock was beginning to be replaced. This strange, blue-green world was turning out to be a wonderful place to call home. The domes of Capsule Corp appeared on the horizon and she sped up.

**.x.**

"Here she comes!" Bulma shouted. Everyone ducked behind furniture and in closets. Koshi and Vegeta wandered slowly into the kitchen, exchanging like-minded exasperated glances.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Mameko asked as she came in to the living room.

"Surprise!" a chorus of voices called. Everyone jumped out from behind couches and closets. Mameko was truly shocked. It seemed that everyone she had met had gathered to welcome her home.

Mameko began to thank everyone, smiling and bowing. It was a cozy party, with about a dozen guests. There were a few people she didn't know at all who were introduced to her. Bulma took her by the arm and introduced her to her friends. Standing next to a large bowl of chips was a handsome, black haired man. His wife stood very close to him, but Mameko didn't see her at all. She stared at the man with her mouth slightly agape. Bulma spoke, but Mameko didn't hear her. He eyes were locked on the tall, spiky-haired Saiyajin man before her.

"Mameko, this is Goku, Gohan and Goten's father. He's a full breed Saiyajin too. Mameko? Are you all right?"

The room went silent.

"Oh no... She's still in it!" Trunks cried and ducked back behind a couch. Vegeta smacked him upside the head lightly.

"Idiot. You're not reacting to her."

"Oh, right," he laughed.

"Mameko?" Bulma asked again.

Goku raised a brow. "You ok, Mameko?"

"I'm sorry. You just look a lot like someone I used to know."

"Oh really?" he asked, as light-hearted as ever. "Who?"

Mameko could barely summon the breath with which to speak. "My mate, Bardock."

"That's funny! That was my dad's name, right Vegeta?"

The prince nodded. His interest was piqued.

Koshi's jaw hung loosely open. "Mameko! Kakarotto is 44 years old! Aren't you?!"

"Yeah, I think so," he answered, confused.

Koshi practically fell over the couch as she ran towards them. "He was put into the Planet Trade when he was just a baby and came here just before Vegeta-sei was destroyed!"

Mameko covered her mouth with her right hand. She reached out and touched his face with her left. "You look _just_ like your father!" she sobbed and laughed.

"Huh?" Goku blinked.

"Don't you get it!?" Koshi cried. "Mameko is Kakarotto-sama's Mother!"

Everyone blinked and stared at them.

"My mother?" Goku asked.

Mameko nodded. "Kakarotto?" she asked.

Spontaneously, the universe's strongest man threw his arms around the young woman and hugged her tightly. "Wow this is so cool! Welcome home, Mom!"

Vegeta continued to blink for several minutes. Trunks folded his arms and shook his head. "Who woulda thunk it, right, Papa?"

He sighed. "I suppose it's a small galaxy, after all."

_To be continued…_


	3. Arrival 2

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Three : The Last Thing Left To Lose**

Four months had passed since the blue haired Saiyajin's arrival on Earth and things had settled into a fairly regular routine. Mameko would wake with the dawn and train with Vegeta for a few hours. She was the only other person in the Capsule household who woke naturally with the sun, and liked the time she could spend alone with her monarch. Vegeta also seemed to like it. It was his chance to have an informal lesson in Saiyajin history. He was too proud to ask her to teach him outright. Every morning he would manage to sneak in a question or two, and every morning he became more relaxed around her.

To Mameko's surprise, Bulma became curious and perhaps a little jealous of the younger woman. One afternoon, Bulma confronted Mameko and asked whether she was trying to muscle in on her man. When Mameko managed to get back on her feet, she told her what she and the Prince did every morning. She explained that she found the early morning workout to be fairly light and easy to keep up with. On a typical morning they would start off with katas and tai-chi and worked up to a light spar before breakfast. She offered an invitation Bulma to sit in on this ritual, but she never seemed to be able to get out of bed on time.

After this routine, Mameko would make the Briefs family a morning meal. This usually consisted of normal Earth recipes they were all used to, but often, she made a Saiya-dish for herself, Koshi and Vegeta. Then the teenagers would go to school, Bulma to work, and Vegeta to heavy training or his meandering, leaving Mameko to her own pursuits.

Most days, she studied at home in her room at Capsule, learning to read and write by watching DVDs and studying old children's books that had belonged to the Briefs. Three afternoons a week she taught Trunks and Koshi Saiyago and Saiyajin culture and history. Occasionally, on her days off, she would pay a visit to her son, Goku.

At first, Mameko dreaded such a visit, having only heard about Chi-chi from others. Finally, she grudgingly made the journey, alone, and had a very pleasant stay after winning her daughter-in-law's respect with her culinary skills.

Then there were days when she found herself drawn out into the forest.

The first day she returned to him, Mameko felt a chill go through her. His eyes glistened with happiness and his lip curled up in an amused smile.

"Well well, back for more?" he sang.

Mameko put her hands on her hips. "Pervert!"

Juunanagou cocked his head to the side and raised a brow. "What's in the basket, Little Blue Saiya Tail?"

Mameko blinked a few times, but recalled a similarly-titled story in one of the children's books. She extended her arms and held out the brown paper bag she had brought with her. "Grandma!" She smirked. "You look like a _wolf_ to me!"

"Better believe it!" He play-growled, reached out and embraced her. "So whadja bring me?"

"Oh, just some muffins I made."

"Muffins, eh?" He peeked in the bag and took a sniff.

"I know you don't eat that much, but..."

"Mm..." he drooled. "Mameko Muffins."

"Perv!" she laughed and pushed his chest.

"Heh, sorry." Juunanagou bowed and allowed her to enter the little cabin.

To her surprise, Juunanagou did not make any overt moves to suggest they sleep together again. They sat in the kitchen and talked about Mameko's adaptation to Earth. He even ate a muffin and commented that they were very good.

As the sun was setting, Juunanagou suggested that she should get back home before people worried about where she was.

Mameko blinked at him a few times, but decided that he was being courteous.

"I really liked having you here," he said as he walked with her outside.

"I like being here, with you."

Juunanagou stared into her eyes.

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm sorry," he said and shook his head. "Yes, I guess I'm just not accustomed to... other people."

"I see." Mameko put her arms around him. "It won't be long now, you'll be sick of me."

"Never," he came back quickly, but almost in a whisper. Mameko got a chill. She kissed him passionately and prayed that he would demand that she stay the night. To her disdain, he simply kissed her back, hugged her and sighed before letting her go.

"Come back soon, ok?"

"I will."

Mameko wondered at his strange behavior, but decided that she hardly knew this artificial man whom she had spent a week with. Perhaps this was just the way he was.

"_Whatever_!" she thought out loud as she flew away. "I don't care how weird he maybe. He makes me feel so wonderful!" she cheered and took her time getting back home.

That evening, Mameko feel asleep with Juunanagou on her mind, but it was someone else who haunted her dreams.

_'No, please!'_ she shouted at faceless bodies with long, white, antiseptic arms. _'Where are you taking him?!'_

A baby wailed almost continuously, somewhere. She struggled to turn to see where he was.

_'No! I want to see him! He's mine! You can't do this!!'_

The hands were all she could see and the crying was fading away. _'You bastards! He's mine!!'_

Suddenly, the scene had changed. She looked out through her own hands at her surroundings. It was a small room, a little dingy and brown. There was no furniture in the space save a rickety metal-frame bed which she was sitting on. Sheets were strewn everywhere, and the window, with its single, yellowing curtain was open and let in a strangely fresh breeze.

Mameko stood up. "This can't be _that_ room..."

"It is," a soft, man's voice replied.

Mameko spun and looked to the door where it had come from. There he was as whole and real as could be but filthy and battered. His armor was cracked in half and a blood soaked bandanna laced his forehead. He was standing there in the little hotel room in which they had met for months when she was pregnant. He had never used the door before. For safety's sake he had always had to come in through the window.

"Bardock!!" she cried and ran to him. He caught her and hugged her tightly.

"I can't stay long."

Mameko pulled back and looked into his black eyes. "Then...?"

"I'm dead as a doornail, kiddo." He held her face and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "The hair looks good."

"W-What?"

"The blue hair. It's cute."

"Oh!" she cried and touched a lock. "But I don't understand..."  
"You don't have to." Bardock lead her back to the bed and they both sat down. He held her hands. "I came here because you're about to go through some rough stuff and I want you to be prepared."

"_About_ to!? Damn it! Haven't I been through enough already?!" she screamed. "I lost you, I lost Kakarotto, I lost my home, my people, my hair color, my _time_!"

"You have one more thing to lose."

"What?!"

"I can't say, but I can warn you."

Mameko slumped her shoulders. "Bardock, I miss you so much, but, I found another."

"I know. And he cares about you very much."

She lost her composure and fell against his chest. Bardock stroked her hair and held her close.

"Kakarotto turned out pretty great, didn't he?" he smiled.

"Oh, he's wonderful," she sobbed. "Did you watch him, Bardock?"

"Yes, all the way."

She smiled and sighed, but he gently pulled her off of him, picked her up and tucked her into the bed. "And I'm watching you too, Mameko. I love you."

"Bardock!" she cried out as he started to fade. "I will always love you!"

"Keep heart, Mameko. Everything will be all right."

She blinked and the room was dark. Her heart raced and she sat bolt upright. The sun was just rising.

Her morning routine with Vegeta was brief.Her prince did not question her silence.

**.x.**

Before long, Mameko was spending more and more time away from the Capsule House. She learned of her sovereign's dislike for androids and decided to keep her relationship a secret. The wary woman even went so far as to get her son to cover for her. Should the Briefs family ever call the Son House wondering where Mameko was, Goku promised to try to mislead them to protect her secret.

It was a bright, heavily humid day. Mameko touched down and jogged into the cabin.

"Hello?" she called. "Juunana?" Not finding him home from work yet, she opened the refrigerator and began making dinner. She snacked as she did so, wolfing down apples and snack-cakes as if they were bite-sized.

"Whoa. Guess I was hungry!" she said as she cleaned up the mess she had made.

"Mameko?" Juunanagou walked in the front door. His clothes were dirty, as usual. His face bore a dark smudge and his hair was pulled up away from his face in a pony tail. A few strands had escaped and fallen out to frame his face. He pushed a few of these out of his eyes, creating another smudge.

"I'm making dinner!" she chimed.

"Looks like you've already had three!"

She leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. "Go get cleaned up, will ya?"

He smiled, but that strange look crept into his eyes again. He went to take a shower.

When Juunanagou returned, the table was set and three steaming dishes awaited him: string beans in garlic sauce, Peking shredded pork with scallions and one of those funky cold, raw-game Saiyajin dishes he knew she had made because she knew he wouldn't touch it with a ten foot cattle prod. He had told her once that he didn't eat anything that was 'still mooing.' Mameko had giggled for hours that night over the word 'moo.' That dish was all hers.

They had a nice, long dinner and sat down in the living room afterwards to listen to a classical concert on the television. Mameko lay her head in his lap and dangled her feet over the arm of the couch.

"Juunana?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think I'm getting fat?"

"You're actually asking me that?" he asked, flabbergasted. He thought people only talked like that in stand-up comedy routines.

"I'm serious!" she remarked. "Look at this!" Mameko lifted her shirt, revealing her belly.

"Well you can pack it away, and you haven't been exercising that much..." Juunanagou gently put his hand on her belly and rubbed it, lovingly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just getting lazy." Juunanagou's hand stopped abruptly. "Nana?"

"Can't be..." he muttered in disbelief.

"What is it?" Mameko asked, alarmed.

"Mameko, when I first met you, you had a certain scent, feel, energy that was _you_. Then when you came back to me, it had changed."

Mameko remembered the strange way he had behaved around her then, and the occasional twist in his eye. "Changed?"

"Your chemistry is different and now I know why."

Mameko looked up into his eyes. They were wide and sparkled with delight.

"I don't know how it's possible but I can feel another heart beat. You're pregnant."

She blinked and slowly put her own hands on her abdomen. "You're right!" Mameko threw her arms around Juunanagou and laughed through her tears.

**.x.**

That morning, Juunanagou nudged her shoulder before he left for work.

"Hey sleepy-head. I gotta go."

"Mm?" she mumbled, surprised that she had slept in.

"It's ok, just hang out. You're sleeping for two now." He smiled and kissed her.

"Mm hm." She grinned and curled into a ball.

Juunanagou walked to work every morning. He enjoyed the peace of the woods before operations commenced. The faint sound of machinery filtered through the trees. He came up over a hill and his work-place appeared.

Five men were setting up for the day's work. They called out to him as they saw him arrive. He greeted each of them and asked them to gather for instruction.

"Ok guys. I'm out next month for a few days' doing some logging and reforestation. Tunnel C-8 is just about maxed out. We're gonna have to spend the next couple days securing it for close-down. I don't want you slacking and someone getting hurt in a cave-in. This is _really_ important. Then and _only then_ we can begin digging in C-9. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," they answered him.

"Also, I have reason to believe that one of us is making off with a little on the side. Knock it off, or pay the consequences."

"Yes, sir."

Juunanagou went into the foreman's shed and overlooked the mine's plan.

In the last ten years he and a dozen men had dug in almost thirty locations on the mountain and had made millions of dollars I diamonds. He had taken care of his workers. All of his employees had been able to keep their children clothed, healthy and educated and live a comfortable life for their trouble. He had not lost a single man to accident or dispute. A few had made enough money to retire early. This group was different. There were a few men who were new and he was afraid that he had made a poor choice in hiring someone. Some of the load had been misplaced.

_'Misplaced,'_ he thought angrily. _'In some one's pocket.'_ Out of all the faults humans possessed, disrespect and greed were two he could not stand.

"Excuse me, Mr. Seventeen?" a voice pulled him out of his musing.

"Yeah, Tetsuo, come on in."

"I just wanted to say thanks for letting me have all that time off when my Kei was sick."

Juunanagou shrugged and waved his hand, smiling.

"And uh... Me and the boys were just thinkin' that if anyone's well, makin' off with some rocks, it'd be Fuyama."

Juunanagou nodded. "Thanks, Tetsuo. I'll look into it."

**.x.**

That night, Juunanagou crept out of bed without waking Mameko and sneaked out of the house. He took to the sky and flew off toward the city.

He found the address he was looking for: a downtown apartment. Juunanagou flew up along the fire escape and hovered outside the window. Fuyama was on the phone. His employer listened.

"Yeah. No problem. The jerk doesn't have any security. He actually trusts his workers! I know! Hahahah! Now, why would I tell you where the mine is? I gotta protect my investment. Yeah? Well, you want what I got, right? Fifty thou. No. Fifty. That's what I thought. I'll be there tomorrow."

He had heard enough.

"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear..." Juunanagou began. He stood in the corner of the room with his arms folded. He wore black and his head was covered by a black bandanna and his eyes by a black mask.

"Who the hell are you!?" Fuyama cried.

"I'm no one to be trifled with. Now, where are the stones?"

Instinctively, Fuyama looked to the hiding place. He looked back to confront the man in black, but he was gone.

"Simpleton," Juunanagou muttered. Fuyama whipped his head to the left and saw him tossing the bag of contraband from hand to hand. "Now, I'm not one to involve the local authorities, so consider _this_ your punishment."

Fuyama reached for a concealed weapon. He pointed a 57 Magnum at the intruder. Juunanagou blinked.

"My, isn't that a big gun." He walked calmly towards him. "You know, they say men who buy large equipment are trying to compensate for their own physical inadequacies."

"Wha?!" he barked, obviously becoming terrified.

"I said, you probably have a small penis."

"That's it!" he screamed, the gun shaking in his hands. "I'm gonna let you have it!!"

"Really? Why, thank you." Juunanagou's hand darted out and snatched the gun out of Fuyama's hands. With no effort, he pinched the barrel closed and twisted it. Tossing it aside, the android sneered and stepped closer.

**.x.**

Mameko woke suddenly and felt out for her partner.

"Juunana...?" She winced and sat up. "Juunana!?" she asked again, praying he was just getting a glass of water. "Juunan… oh, I don't feel so good."

She got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. Mameko hugged the porcelain and cried out for him as waves of pain coursed through her body.

It seemed like an eternity later when she finally heard footsteps race through the house. Mameko panted and looked up at the doorway. "Nana... help me," she whispered. The feet stopped dead.

"Mom!"

Goku looked down on his mother. She was sitting in a fairly large pool of her own blood beside the toilet. "Kakarotto," she whispered. "Help me..."

**.x.**

A few minutes later Fuyama ran screaming out of the apartment building. Juunanagou watched him for a while, satisfied that he was frightened enough that he would no longer steal from his mine nor tell any of his criminal connections of its whereabouts. He turned and flew back home.

**.x.**

Goku sat at Mameko's bedside in the hospital and held her hand. She was still anesthetized and breathing shallow breaths.

The android burst into the room clutching a note Goku had the presence of mind to write before flying his mother out of the cabin.

"Mameko! Goku, what happened?!"

"I don't know." He stood and let Juunanagou take over. "They wouldn't believe I was her son, so they wouldn't tell me."

"Nana?" Mameko muttered and opened her eyes.

"I'm here."

"I'm sorry..."

"For what? Are you all right?"

"I lost the baby."

Goku gasped and stared at her.

Juunanagou hugged her and stroked her hair as she bawled into his shoulder, repeating her apology.

"No, no, it's not your fault. Mameko, look at me." He gently held her face. "Are you all right?" There were tears in his flawless eyes.

She nodded. "They said I'll be fine."

He and Goku both sighed with relief. "Mameko, I love you so much when I saw this note I..."

The corners of her mouth curled up a little. "You do?"

"Huh?"

"You love me?"

Juunanagou smiled. "Of course I do!"

"Oh, Nana, I love you too..."

Goku smiled and moved to leave.

"Kakarotto..."

"Don't worry, Mom. Everything will be all right."

Mameko blinked a few times. _'You have one more thing to lose... Everything will be all right.'_ Goku's father's words echoed in her head. She beamed at him. "I know, My Son. I know." Mameko gripped Juunanagou's hands tightly. He stayed with her through the night in the hospital and every night thereafter.

_To be continued…_


	4. Majin Nation

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Four : Majin Nation**

Mameko stared at the green and white tiled floor and listened to what the other women were saying, but she was too afraid to talk. She had never cried in front of strangers before and didn't want to start now.

"How are you doing, Miss Saiyajin?"

"Huh?" she asked, started, still not used to the concept of a family name. "Fine."

The group leader cocked her head to the side and simply smiled. "When was the last time you left your house except for coming here today?"

Mameko blinked. How did she know she had been staying home? She blinked faster, feeling the tears prick up.

"I see."

The other women had been in the support group before she had joined and all looked kindly on the strange young woman with the tail. Each one of them had all lost a baby, too.

"Well, I think the goal you should set for yourself is to get out of that house!" The leader smiled. "Go to a movie or shopping with some girlfriends. Just once, not for long. See how that goes."

She nodded, but didn't reply.

**.x.**

Trunks' girlfriend Muzai and Koshi eyed each other as the three girls walked into the mall.

"I'm really glad you could come, Mameko-chan." Muzai smiled. "I heard you were under the weather. How are you feeling?"

"Oh," she sighed. "I'm fine."

Koshi just shook her head. They sat down on some round, uncomfortable seats. Each girl had an ice cream.

"Oh! Koshi! Come here, I want you to see this!" Muzai jumped up and grabbed her friend. "We'll be right back, Mameko-chan."

Mameko shrugged.

"Mu, what the hell?"

"Shh. Ok, what is up with her? She's not exactly a bag o' laughs. It's more than the flu, isn't it?"

"If there's anything more to it, I haven't a clue."

"Damn. She's a drag, Koshi."

"I know. I'm sorry. She called me up and asked if we were doing anything, that she really needed to go somewhere. So, I invited her." Koshi looked at Mameko's reflection in the shop window. "I'm kinda worried about her. It's like she's depressed, but whenever I ask her about it she just says..."

"…She's fine. Hmm." Muzai frowned. "Well. This has got to stop. I'm _not_ hanging out with anyone that dull." She looked through the glass. Inside, a rather goth-looking shop attendant put a book in the display window. "I got it!"

"What?" Koshi asked. Muzai pointed to the book and jogged back to Mameko, dragging a reluctant Koshi back with her.

"Mameko! Wanna come out with us tonight?!"

Mameko had been watching her ice cream melt. "Huh?"

"Tonight. Out. Wanna?"

"Um..." She thought about it. "I dunno. I really should get back home."

"And do what, sit around by yourself?" Muzai shouted. "Come on!"

Again, Mameko regretted having to keep her relationship with Juunanagou a secret. "Well, what are you going to do?"

"Yeah, Mu. What are we going to do?" Koshi growled.

Muzai grinned evilly. "Ever heard of the legend of Sekkaku?"

**.x.**

Mameko shined her flashlight up at a sign hanging over a wrought-iron fence. She had been silent on the way over but had to speak up now. "Graveyard of the… what is that word?"

"Vampire!" Muzai grinned and turned her flashlight on under her chin. "Sekkaku, the Undead Mistress of the Night lies in this very graveyard!"

Koshi brushed by her and entered the cemetery. "Can we get this over with, please?"

"So, why are we here?"

Muzai rolled her eyes. "'Cause it's fun!"

"It is?" Koshi asked.

"It will be when we're screaming our heads off in terror!" She rubbed her hands together.

"I do not understand this Earthling desire to be frightened." Mameko sighed.

The girls wandered through the stones and stopped in front of a large, marble sarcophagus. 'Sekkaku' was etched into its surface.

"Here lies Sekkaku: legendary Vampire," Muzai whispered.

"Legendary, huh? How come I've never heard of her?"

"Not my fault you're uncultured."

Koshi glared at her.

Mameko had wandered off a little. She stared at a family monument. One of the members was only three days old when he died.

"Mameko?" Koshi asked. "Are you all right?"

"No."

Muzai stopped rolling her eyes and listened.

"I'm very depressed," she muttered.

Koshi put her hand on her shoulder. "We're here for you, Mameko-chan."

She nodded and smiled a little. _'Not yet,' _she thought. _'I'm not ready yet.' _"So what's this about a vampire?"

Muzai smiled and turned her flashlight back to light her face. "It is said that on this very night, every year, the stars are aligned just right. If Sekkaku is disturbed, she will wake and terrorize the world!"

Koshi raised a brow. "You're joking, right?"

"It's a legend! You think I'm making this up?!"

She folded her arms. "Yes."

"I am _not_! It's true! Sekkaku plagued Japan hundreds of years ago! People were so scared of her that they sealed her tomb with all those prayers and stuff!" She motioned to the paper seals that covered the stone, obviously carefully maintained by priests.

"It's superstitious hooey." Koshi scoffed.

"It is _not_!"

"It is TOO!!"

"It is NOT!!"

Mameko looked past them at the tomb. Her eyes widened and she raised her hand limply to point to something behind them.

"IT IS TOO!!!" Koshi screamed.

"It is _not_." another voice hissed. Mameko stuttered as she pointed. Rising out of the broken seals of her tomb was a woman dressed in a ragged kimono. Her skin was white and her hair was black. Her yellow eyes reflected in the light of their flashlights. The vampire's lips curled into a smile, revealing two pearly, white fangs.

Mameko, Koshi and Muzai screamed like children and ran through the cemetery, stumbling over grave markers.

"I _told_ you she was real!!" Muzai called as she ran ahead of everyone.

Koshi growled. "What the hell are we doing!? Muzai! Mameko! Stop!" The girls did as they were told and looked to their leader. She turned and put her hands on her hips. "Bring it on, dead girl!"

Sekkaku didn't slow down. She charged Koshi, tackling her to the ground. Koshi snarled and held the fiend at bay.

"Get offa me!" she shouted and kicked her away.

Sekkaku recovered and got to her feet. "Ooh, aren't we strong?"

"Yes, _we are_." Koshi and the vampire locked eyes. Sekkaku grinned and stepped closer. Koshi's hands fell to her sides in submission.

"Koshi-sama...?" Mameko asked and stepped toward her. When she didn't respond, Mameko grabbed her friend and stood between her Princess and the vampire. "Stop it," she commanded.

Sekkaku frowned. "Aw, but I'm hungry!" she whined.

Muzai stepped forward. "Wow, you _are_ real!"

"Well, Duh." The vampire rolled her eyes and began to look more human by the minute

Muzai poked her. "You don't feel dead."

"Could you please stop that?"

She continued to poke. Sekkaku hissed and lunged at her. Mameko popped her on the head with her fist. "Knock it off!"

"Ow! Come on, Lady! I've been asleep for hundreds of years! I'm starved!"

"Can't you suck on a cow or something?"

Sekkaku looked horrified. "Uck! No!"

"Well, then I guess I'm going to have to put a stop to your fiendish ways!" Mameko took a fighting stance.

Sekkaku sweat a little. "Er… hey, you're friend is coming to!" she pointed to Koshi and when Muzai and Mameko's backs were turned, she ran for it.

"Koshi-sama, are you alright?"

"Unnn..." Koshi shook her head. "What the hell happened?"

Muzai sat down on a marker. "Sekkaku mesmerized you."

"Where'd she go?"

"She got away!" Mameko growled.

Koshi started to laugh. The other girls looked at her funny. "Well, you were right, Muzai."

"I _was_?"

"That was fun."

They laughed. Mameko smiled. "Should we go after her?"

"She's dead. There's no life energy to trace. Besides, I have a feeling we'll see her again."

**.x.**

Muzai's air-car dropped Mameko off at the little cabin in the middle of the woods. She waved good-bye and jogged into the house. Juunanagou was waiting for her, sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book. He stood up.

"Did you have a good time?"

She smiled and embraced him. "Yes! Yes I did!"

**.x.**

The following Monday, Koshi met up with Muzai in the cafeteria at the school she and her friends attended. They got their lunches and sat down at a table.

"Hey guys!" chimed a green haired girl.

"Hey Leeli, how was your weekend?"

"Oh yeah. You had a date with Goten, didn't you?" Koshi remarked with her mouth full.

Leeli nodded. The plethora of tiny, hoop earrings that lined her tall, pointy ears jingled as she did so. "But he's such a prude! I swear he won't even French me!"

"That's too much information." Koshi swallowed.

Muzai just giggled thinking of the things she and her boyfriend Trunks did. Koshi gave her a knowing jab in the ribs.

"So, what did you guys end up doing this weekend?"

"Oh, not much," Muzai replied nonchalantly. "We cheered up Mameko and released a Vampire from her slumber."

"You know I haven't met your friend Mameko yet and I _come again_?"

Koshi rolled her eyes. _'She's such a drama queen,'_ she thought and pointed her thumb at Muzai. "This one thought it was a good idea to roam around in a graveyard at midnight and wake this sleeping demon-woman-vampire-thing. She's out there somewhere now, probably terrorizing some small… town..." Koshi trailed off and squinted in the direction of the cafeteria doors.

"Oh come on. You didn't even believe me!" Muzai pouted and sipped her milk.

"Wow, damn." Leeli blinked. "Serves me right for picking the wrong weekend to ditch you guys. So what was this vampire like?"

Muzai was still relishing the reaction she got. "She was pale. Had black hair sorta done up in braids, yellow eyes, kind of sexy, but still young looking. She might have been a teen when she was made a vampire."

Leeli looked where Koshi was gawking. "Hey, the vampire look must be in or that's the gothest chick I've seen in a long time." She pointed with her fork. Muzai turned around and nearly fell off the bench.

"Good afternoon. So good to see you again!"

"Va-va-vava-va..." Muzai stuttered. "Vampire!!"

"Shh," the vampire hissed and put her finger to her crimson lips. "Not so loud for pity's sake. You're going to make me look like a freak!"

"Too late," Koshi snarled and stood up to challenge the fiend.

"Relax, kids. I'm not here for a snack. I'm a student!" she chimed and held up her Orange Star High School daily planner.

"Holy crap." Muzai got up. "You're serious, aren't you?"

She nodded.

"What about feeding, I mean, you're gonna get hungry eventually!"

"I've taken care of it. Nobody dies." She put her books down on the table. "So," she grinned. "I don't think we've all been introduced. You two know me, but," she extended her hand to Leeli, "I'm Sekkaku."

Leeli took it cautiously. "Uh, I'm Leeli. You know Koshi and Muzai?"

Sekkaku nodded. "Where's the one with the blue hair?"

"Mameko's too old for school." Muzai managed to say.

"Pity."

Koshi remained standing and frowned at her. Sekkaku's adult figure and pale skin made the school uniform she wore stand out. "Aren't you a little old for school, yourself? If I recall, your marker said you died five hundred years ago."

Leeli choked a little on her milk.

"Pish posh. I can do whatever I want. I never got a high school education, so here I am!" She flashed a fang-rimmed grin

"You know, I was actually starting think school wasn't that bad," Koshi grumbled. "Why are you so interested in us, anyway?"

Sekkaku powered her face with a compact. Her image didn't appear in its small mirror. "Simple. You're stronger than I am. If we become friends, then I can rely on you for protection should the villagers form an angry mob."

"Well, she's straight forward, isn't she?" Leeli raised her brows.

Sekkaku shrugged. "I know what I want and how to get it. Simple."

"Why would we want to be friends with a blood-sucker like you?" Koshi snarled.

Muzai noticed everyone checking the gorgeous vampire out.

"For one, I'm the new girl. I'll be enormously popular for a while and by the looks of it, you guys could use the clout."

Leeli and Koshi just stared, mouths agape, not knowing how to counter such a remark. She had absolutely no tact whatsoever. Muzai on the other hand smiled.

"Ok."

"Muzai?!" Koshi slammed her hand down on the table. "Ok?! Just like that?!"  
"Just like that. She absolutely right, Kosh." Muzai replied. "I'll be friends with you, Sekkaku!"

"Great! Thank you, Mu!" The vampire beamed.

"Mu…" Koshi flopped down in her seat and pushed the remnants of her lunch around her plate while grumbling to herself. Leeli continued to stare until the bell rang.

**.x.**

Mameko slid into bed next to her android early one weekday evening and snuggled close. It was just cool enough that they could sleep with the covers on and tight to each other.

"Hm..."

"Hm?" he replied.

"You were in the mine today."

He laughed a little. "Yes I was. What, can you smell how dirty I am?"

"You're not dirty. I can smell the earth. The deep soil. It's different than topsoil. I can tell if you've been out in the trees, or if you went into the city or how long ago you had a bath."

"Really? 'Cause you've got a Saiyajin nose?"

"That and you have no biological scent. I can distinguish the smells more clearly."

Juunana looked at her in the dark. "I have no scent?"

"No, you have no scent. You're an android. You don't perspire and stuff, so you don't have a scent."

He frowned. "I don't think you have a scent."

"You just can't discern it. Trust me. I do."

"Are you saying that your nose is better than mine?"

She laughed. "Yes." He went silent. "Aw..." She tickled him. He might have been artificial, but he still had his vulnerabilities.

"Mame- Mame- Mameko ss- sstopit! Hahaha..."

She giggled with delight and pinned him to the bed. Mameko shot him a big, cheesy grin she knew that he could see and kissed him. He put his arms around her. He looked into her blue eyes and smoothed his hand over her coarse, blue hair.

"I love you."

"Same here."

"I wanted to ask you. What did couples on Vegeta-sei do?"

She laughed. "The same thing we do! What, do you think we are, animals?"

"Nonono! I mean did they get married?"

"Oh. Well. Marriage was more for the royals and such. The rest of us didn't really have any reason for pomp and circumstance."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Just wondering."

Mameko liked this subject. She didn't want him to get off of it. "If a couple was in love and intended to remain a couple as long as they both lived, they would bond."

"Bond?"

She nodded. "What do Earthlings do?"

"Well, um…" He blushed, thankful for the darkness. "It depends on the culture, but most people around here have a religious ceremony and a reception which their friends and families attend."

"It's public?" she asked, astounded.

"Mmhm."

"How odd. Well, since we don't have families, per-se and not so many friends, perhaps bonding would be best. That is..." she stopped herself too late.

"You mean you want to?" he asked, his artificial heart crawling up into his throat.

"Well, that is, if you want to?"

"Hang on." He got up from under her and jogged out of the room. He returned moments later, flicked on the lights and jumped back on the bed.

"An Earthling man usually gives one of these," he started as he opened a small box containing a shining stone on a golden band, "to the woman he wants to marry."

Mameko watched in awe as he took the jewel out of the box.

"What is it?"

"It's a diamond ring." Juunanagou let her examine it.

"Diamond... You mean _this_ is the rock that you mine?"

Juunanagou laughed. "Well, this is what it looks like after it's cut."

"It's beautiful! Did this one come from your mine?"

He nodded. "Just after I met you, I selected this one. I thought that you would like it. I never thought..." Juunana blushed. "Mameko, would you marry me?"

Her tail flopped back and forth nervously on the bed. She nodded. "Yes. Yes!"

"Now," Juunanagou leaned back. "Tell me about this Saiyajin bond..."

**.x.**

Three weeks later, Muzai invited her friends on a picnic by the side of a lake in the countryside just south of the city. Muzai, Leeli and Mameko lay on beach towels and sun-bathed. Koshi sat under a nearby tree and watched the water. Sekkaku sat under an umbrella and sucked on a blood donor bag as if it were a Capri-Sun.

"Ahhhh. This is the life!" she sighed, tossing the empty bag aside.

"Mmm. I love the country! Mameko, you're so lucky that you live out there."

"It's nice, but I was a city girl on Vegeta-sei. I sort of miss it."

"Hmm..." Koshi looked up at the blue sky. "Vegeta-sei. Man, I wish I could have seen it."

"It was nothing like this world. Not that this one is worse. It's wonderful!"

"Yeah it is..." Leeli whispered. All five girls stared at the sky.

As they sighed and took in the peace of their surroundings, they felt at ease.

"It's almost too perfect. Too calm..." Muzai commented.

"Too quiet." Koshi straightened up. "No birds," she whispered.

All five girls were now on alert.

"What is it?"

"I dunno." Koshi stood up. In the next second, they got their answer. A falling object streaked across the sky and landed just a mile away.

"Holy crap!" Sekkaku clutched her umbrella and leapt to her feet as the other girls took to the air. "Hey guys, wait up! I can't fly!!!" she chased after them on foot.

Sekkaku panted as she came up on the scene. In a crater lay a round, metal ball. The hatch was open. Leeli, Muzai, Koshi and Mameko were already investigating.

"What the hell is that?!" Sekkaku wheezed.

"It's a Saiyajin space pod. An old one." Mameko jumped down into the crater.

"Be careful, Maks!" Leeli called after her.

Mameko looked in. The occupant was nowhere to be found. Mameko sat in the seat and started to manipulate the ship's computer. "This ship was locked down almost five hundred years ago!" she shouted to her friends.

"Is that possible?" Koshi barked back.

"Yes." She floated back to the rim of the crater. "The Saiyajin acquired their technology a long time ago. But whatever was in this thing must have bailed as soon as it landed."

Muzai shuddered. "Do you think it's a Saiyajin?"

"I hope so." Mameko stared at the ship.

"Do you think it's cute?" chirped a foreign voice.

"Well I..." Mameko turned and looked to the source. A short, black haired, pre-teen girl with enormous ears like Leeli's, a dark tail like Koshi's and a blue, five-pointed star in the middle of her forehead smirked at the girls.

"Hi!" she chimed. "I'm Kristel!"

Muzai and Sekkaku hugged each other and shrieked in fear. Leeli, Koshi and Mameko stared in awe.

"Hm. I didn't think I'd find Saiyajin here, interesting." She eyed Mameko and Koshi. Leeli took a step back. "Ooh..." her dark eyes glistened. "And you two!" Muzai and Sekkaku shrieked again as the young girl ran up to them. "A Cyborg and a Zombie, cool!" She whipped out an electronic device and began scanning them.

Sekkaku hid behind Muzai. "I'm Vampire not a Zombie!" she barked.

"Oi!" Koshi boiled over. "Just who the hell are you!?"

"I'm Kristel!" she bubbled again. She turned her attention back to Sekkaku. "Will you be my guinea pig?"

The vampire shrieked and ducked down further behind Muzai who only rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

Mameko blinked. "So, are you a Saiyajin?"

"Sort of. I'm more like the Grandmother of all Saiyajin," she said off the cuff and flew down into the crater. She gathered some things out of the pod and returned to them. "Take me to your leader!" she beamed. In her arms were various unidentified devices.

"I think you should speak with my father." Koshi frowned and folded her arms.

Mameko observed the devices. "I think she should speak with Bulma-san."

Kristel cocked her head to the side and giggled. Sekkaku poked her head around Muzai. Kristel just laughed some more. Muzai, Koshi and Mameko escorted the newcomer to Capsule Corp. Leeli picked up Sekkaku and followed at a safe distance.

**.x.**

"Explain to me again how your parents have let a complete stranger, never mind a lunatic, stay at your house!" Sekkaku griped at lunch the next Monday.

Koshi kept her eyes and voice low. "First of all, it's not like she's living in my house. She's set up this underground lab. My mother is ecstatic to have someone to talk science with. Kristel's some kind of insane, ancient, Saiyajin genius. My father has given his approval for whatever reason he has, so I agree with his decision."

Sekkaku was silent. "Oh." She filed her nails.

"Oh! Koshi! Is it time yet for, _you know_...?" Muzai poked her.

"I suppose so." Koshi cleared her throat. "It has recently come to my attention that there is a way we can get more powerful very quickly and look like bad-asses while we're at it."

"Oh...?" Leeli asked.

Koshi nodded and leaned in. "It's called Majin," she whispered. "Mameko and Muzai are already on board. How about it, Leeli, Sekkaku?"

"Well, what is this Majin?" Leeli asked.

Sekkaku grinned. "It's a charm. One can have the Majin 'I' placed on them and gain incredible power. I'm in, Kosh!"

Koshi blinked. "Excellent!"

Leeli looked unconvinced. "Does it hurt?"

"Not if you're willing, or at least that's what my father said."

"Is it permanent?"

"No." Sekkaku leaned in. "You can be de-charmed."

"Uh, sure then," Leeli caved in under the peer pressure. "I suppose so."

"Great! Tonight after school we'll meet at my house." Koshi looked smug and happy, but Leeli couldn't help but think that this was a bad idea.

**.x.**

Koshi's room was simple and very clean. Her bed was tucked so tightly you could bounce a quarter off of it. There were some photographs framed on the walls, but other than that it was free of decoration. Her schoolwork was neatly placed on her desk, awaiting completion. She sat on her bed and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"So," she nearly purred. "Are we all in?"

Leeli, Muzai, Sekkaku, Mameko and Kristel nodded solemnly. Their leader picked up what looked like a glass cell phone and without pressing any buttons called the person on the other end.

"Oh, Popo-san? We need you!"

"What is that?" Kristel cooed.

"It's the Popo Phone. A while ago when we went up to see him to wish for something, he was so pleased he let us have this direct line," Muzai said and shuddered. "He's a genie. We can wish for anything we want, whenever we want."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Mameko cheered.

Leeli put her hand on her shoulder. "There is but one price." She shook her head. "We think long and hard before asking."

Koshi put the phone down. "Let's go."

"My goodness!" Sekkaku blinked. "What can possibly be so terrible to not want your wishes to come true!?"

The girls were suddenly whisked away to Kami's lookout. Mr. Popo was waiting for them, drooling in anticipation.

Sekkaku, Kristel and Mameko shouted at him in alarm.

"Ok!" he shouted with glee. "Who gonna rub Popo belly!?"

"Oh! Is _that_ all!?" Mameko waved as she stepped up the round genie. It was Koshi, Muzai and Leeli's turn to cry out in disgust.

"What?" she shrugged. "Right here?" Mameko asked, pointed to his exposed and rounded stomach and crouched down.

"Uh huh!"

"Oh kay!" She rubbed him so fast it nearly burned him.

"Ow! Ow ow! Careful!" Popo shouted and jumped back.

"You said for me to rub you. I did it!"

"Not like that!"

"Fine!" Mameko snarled, anxious to find out what this Majin thing was all about. "Like _this_!?" she rubbed him the right way, and he nearly got carried away.

"Stop stop stop! Too much!"

"How 'bout now?"

"All right! You an animal!"

Mameko growled. "I'm a Saiyajin!

"Same difference!"

When the rest of the girls had stopped laughing, Koshi stepped forward.

"Popo-san. We wish to become charmed with the power of Majin."

"_What_?!" He nearly fell over. "You know what that did to your father, don't you!?"

"Yeah," she waved. "He's the one that suggested it, actually."

Popo blinked. "Well, ok. I suppose." He lifted his fat arms and curled his hands into fists. "You shall be... MAJIN!" His fists flew open and it seemed like nothing happened.

All six girls blinked.

"That... was it?" Sekkaku deadpanned.

"I sort of feel antsy. Like I wanna kick something," Leeli commented.

Mameko turned and looked at her friends. "Ah! M's!" she cried.

They all saw each other's M on their foreheads and cheered. Suddenly, all six stopped and stared ahead. Their mouths hung open loosely.

"Do you feel that!?" Kristel asked.

"What the hell is happening!?" Muzai shouted.

Koshi tilted back her head and laughed, evilly. "Yes! The power! The amazing power! It's just as Father described it!"

Sekkaku grinned. "Ooh! I likey!"

Mameko flexed her muscles. The veins on her arms stood out a little as she did. "Alright! I might be able to break Super Saiyajin with this power!"

Koshi nodded.

Leeli remained silent. Her Majin M creased with worry.

**.x.**

"Honey, I'm home!" Juunanagou chimed as he hung his coat on the hook. The house was dark. The faint sound of music on the radio warbled out from the living room.

"Mameko?" he called. "Where are you?" The android felt out for her and sensed she was in the bedroom. He knew that she had gone to meet with her girlfriends today about something secret they were cooking up, but what was it?

"Mame…k-ko…?" he stuttered as he turned the corner.

She giggled darkly. "Well, what do you think?" She was wearing black lingerie and sitting on her folded legs on their bed. Candles illuminated the room. Her tail flicked back and forth anxiously.

"I, uh..." He began to approach her then noticed the character on her forehead. "Mameko! You've become Majin!"

The look of horror on his face made her heart rise up into her throat.

"Is that bad?" she asked, innocently.

"Well yeah! I heard years ago Vegeta almost killed Goku 'cause he was Majin! That's like pure evil!"

"This is different!" she protested. "We _chose_ to be this way. We're not evil! Well, not entirely evil, anyway."

He relaxed his shoulders. She was herself, all right. "So you're ok?"

Mameko smiled. "Yes." Then she pouted. "I thought you'd like this..."

"Well, I like _this_," he said and indicated to the room and to her.

"You wanna come over here and show me just how much you do?"

Juunanagou grinned and went to her.

"Yes, come over to the dark side!" she cackled in a Hungarian accent and giggled darkly again.

**.x.**

A week later Mameko and Kristel sat side by side and waited in the tall grass in a field just to the south of Juunanagou's cabin. Their tails were twisted together.

"Ok, ready… set..." Kristel chanted. The tips of each of their tails pointed at the other. "Go!"

The tail tips battled it out, hitting and dodging until Kristel's tail pinned Mameko's. "One, Two, Three I win!" she cheered.

"Best 5 out of 7!" Mameko yelled and readied her tail.

"Uck, knock that off, you Saiyajin whackjobs." Sekkaku shuddered as she appeared seemingly out of nowhere, holding her sun parasol over her head. She looked down her sunglasses at them.

"What? It's the same thing as thumb-wrestling." Kristel pointed out.

"No, it's not."

Koshi, Muzai and Leeli touched down behind her and joined them.

"Koshi-sama, is tail-wresting weird?" Mameko asked.

"Yes,"

Sekkaku stuck her tong out and singed it in the sunlight. Mameko pointed and laughed.

"Ok, ok. This meeting of Majin Nation now comes to order!" Koshi flopped down in the grass and folded her arms. "Leeli, please read back the minutes from the last meeting."

"Ok, uh..." She flipped open a Badzmaru notebook and recited. "Well, we failed to convince Trunks to join, played some video games and watched Weiß Kreuz."

"And _that_ is exactly why meetings won't be held at Capsule anymore." Koshi grumbled.

"It was time for Omi!" Sekkaku shouted. "I can't help it if you scheduled the meeting against my Omi-kun!"

"He's not real, Sekkaku," Muzai nudged her.

"You're just saying that 'cause you've got a real life bishounen!"

"Maybe!" Mu beamed. Little images of Trunks floated around her head.

"Guys!" Koshi shouted. A vein bulged from her forehead. "We are supposed to be planning to take over the world, here!"

"A thousand apologies, Koshi-sama!"

"I have been doing some thinking about our little quest and it strikes me that if we were to try to take the world by force, we should surely fail."

"What?!" Mameko shouted.

"Whenever this world is in trouble, Mameko-san, your son saves it. We cannot defeat Kakarotto."

"Maybe _you_ can't," Muzai flexed her biceps. "But the rest of us aren't in love with him so..." she was cut short as Koshi's fist came down in her head. "Ouch," she whispered and fell over.

"In love?" Mameko blinked.

"NEVERMIND! The point is we have a major obstacle in the way of anything serious we'd try."

"You're in love with my Kakarotto?" Mameko blinked some more.

Muzai grabbed Koshi's cheeks and pulled. "Oh, yes! She waits for the day that Chi-chi drops dead so Goku can be all hers!"

Koshi grabbed Muzai's cheeks and pulled. "We're both Saiyajin, dipstick! We'll both out-live Chi-chi by decades anyway!"

Kristel rolled in the grass, clutching her sides with laughter.

Sekkaku held her hand up to her mouth as she too laughed. "Hm… I think I have an idea…"Koshi was too busy beating up Muzai to pay attention to her so she grinned and kept her musings to herself. "Won't she be pleased!" Sekkaku giggled to herself.

"Ok, is this meeting over?" Mameko stood and looked wistfully towards her house.

"Sheesh! Can you do five minutes without him!?" Muzai asked.

Mameko laughed. "Not recently!" She rubbed her forehead. "This thing makes me absolutely insatiable!"

"You stay the hell away from my Trunks!"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Mu-mu."

Koshi looked at Muzai. "Damn it. There's something I was supposed to tell you."

Kristel popped up in front of her. "Trunks wants to see you tonight on the top of the Capsule Dome."

"Do you know _everything_?" Koshi snarled.

"Uh-huh!" she chimed.

"Fine. Meeting adjourned!" Koshi turned to take off into the sky and gasped. A flash of light whizzed by her ear, exploding the ground just behind her. The Majin girls prepared to fight.

"All right! Who did that!?" Koshi growled.

A figured descended out of the clouds.

"I did!" The young, black haired woman was wearing Saiyajin armor. She sneered and pointed her finger at the group. "I've been looking everywhere for you, Sister. I had to come all the way to this dimension to find you!"

"Sister?" Mameko shouted. "Who?"

The girls all turned and looked at each other. Only one still stared at the newcomer. Leeli dropped to her knees. Her eyes were wide. "I- I remember now!"

"Forgotten what?!" Muzai grabbed her friend's shoulders.

"When I came here three years ago I didn't know where I came from, only who I was! Gohan-san was kind enough to take me in, but all this time, I was supposed to be on a quest!" She gnashed her teeth. "How could I have forgotten?!"

The newcomer laughed evilly. "So you failed, is that it? There's no way you can stop what has already begun. And now that I'm here, I'll bring the Dark to this world too!"

"The Dark?" Sekkaku stepped forward. "Leeli, who is that girl?!"

"That's Leela," she said, getting to her feet. "My little sister!"

**.x.**

Leeli fell to the ground, astounded and stared up at her sister. The rest of Majin Nation took a stance and waited for their leader's order.

Sekkaku furrowed her brows. "Um, be right back." The Vampire stepped back and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Koshi noticed this out of the corner of her eye. Her attention was all on the intruder. "Take a number, Sweetheart. We got dibs on this planet!"

Leela put her hands on her hips and laughed. "The Dark will consume you all. There is no reason for you to bother."

"It's true!" Leeli shouted in terror. "In our dimension the Dark was unstoppable! Everyone fell to its evil power."

"Everyone but you, Leeli, you pathetic coward!" Leela shouted. "You ran away like a little child while Mother, Father and I fought in vain against the Dark."

"I had to!" she cried. "Kami-sama called me to the lookout. He knew the only way to save Earth was to leave it!"

"To flee it, you mean!" Leela pulled a thin vile of purple liquid out of the gap between her breastplate and her chest. "No matter. I have found you at last, Sister-dear. Come," she uncapped the vile. "Open wide. I have just enough for you and all your little friends." A thin wisp of smoke swirled around the vile. Before Leela could react, it materialized into an alabaster hand.

"I'll take that!" Sekkaku chimed. Her hand joined the rest of her body a few yards from Leela. "Ooh, pretty purple. Does it taste like grape?" she wondered out loud.

Leela scoffed. "Go ahead and give it a taste, I think you'll find it quite refreshing."

The vampire shrugged and downed the whole thing.

Koshi screamed. "Sekkaku, what are you doing?!"

Sekkaku blinked. "Ew, you totally lied. That was gross." She strolled back over to her friends and adjusted her sunglasses. "So, are we gonna kick her ass or what?"

Leela blinked incredulously at her. "How...?"

Mameko, Muzai and Kristel sighed. Koshi just laughed. "That's right, she's dead. No poison can hurt her! Good job, Sekkaku."

"Thanks, Kosh."

Koshi didn't take her eyes off Leela. "All right, Leeli. Since she's your sister, I think you should have the honor of fighting her."

Leeli gasped and looked up at her leader. "Koshi, I can't!"

"You mean she's too powerful or are you defying me?"

Mameko stepped forward and put her hand on Koshi's shoulder. "I think at this time, Leeli is struggling to comprehend what's happened. She won't be effective in a fight. Allow me to go first, Koshi-sama."

Kristel helped Leeli to her feet. "Leeli, you said something about Kami-sama that intrigued me. I'd like to discuss something with him right now. Would you join me?"

She nodded absently. She indicated to Kristel to help Leeli to her feet.

"You're running away again, Sister?!" Leela shouted and powered up.

"Fight me first!" Mameko yelled and stepped between the sisters. "Unless you're afraid to face a full-blooded Saiyajin." She too powered up.

Leela sneered. "I fear nothing. Let's see what you've got."

**.x.**

Kristel and Leeli flew as fast as they could to the lookout.

"I must have had my memory erased when I came through the portal!" Leeli talked to herself.

"So there's a dimensional portal at the lookout!" Kristel grinned. "Just as I suspected. I only hope that Leela didn't interact with Popo and Kami-sama when she came through."

"Oh no!" Leeli shouted. "If they have been exposed to the Dark there's no telling what kind of trouble this could mean for the Earth!"

**.x.**

Mameko jabbed her fist into Leela's face, but the teen dodged. Mameko spun to kick her, but she leapt over her and sneered.

Mameko snarled. "Sit still!"

"Catch me if you can, freak."

"Who's calling who a freak, freak!" she growled back and missed a couple more times. Aggravated, Mameko backed off and seethed, "you don't know what you're getting into, sister." She flexed and allowed her Majin powers to blossom. Mameko screamed and charged at the wide-eyed stranger.

Muzai and Sekkaku clenched their fists, the desire to fight burring through their veins.

Mameko tackled Leela and slammed her through a smallish grove of trees. The tree trunks splintered as they flew. She then punched the girl into the Earth and hovered a few feet above the tree line. "Ha!" She shouted. "How ya like that?"

Leela burst out of the crater and fought Mameko hand to hand in the air. The other Majins looked on.

Sekkaku shaded her eyes. "Damn. How is that girl able to take so much damage?"

"I dunno." Muzai shrugged. "I've never seen Leeli fight like that."

"That Leela girl is pure evil. Even as a Majin, Leeli is too nice to fight like that," Koshi muttered in reply without glancing away from the fight.

"So, ready to give up yet? Or shall I finish you off?" Mameko asked as she grabbed Leela in a head lock.

"Would you really kill your dear little friend's only sister?" Leela mocked.

"Feh. I am firstly a Saiyajin. We aren't a very sympathetic race in battle," she laughed. "And I am secondly a Majin, which means, if you do not concede defeat, you die."

Leela relaxed, throwing Mameko off guard. "Who said anything about concessions?" she hissed and threw Mameko over her shoulder. The older woman crashed down into the forest. Leela lighted a few yards away from the remaining Majins.

"Ok, who's next?"

Mameko burst out of the woods and raised her hands to attack.

"Mameko! Enough!" Koshi barked.

She stopped dead. "Yes, Koshi-sama!" she obeyed and touched down.

"Well, well. Aren't we the little Generalissimo."

"I am their Princess. Koshi Oujosama."

"Really? Then I should pay my respects to my ruler before I destroy her." Leela bowed deeply and sarcastically.

"What are you talking about?" Koshi narrowed her eyes.

Leela blinked. "You mean to tell me you've been around my sister all this time and you didn't know?"

Sekkaku looked exasperated. "Didn't know what, Biatch? Get to the friggin point!"

"Hm," Leela grinned. "Never mind."

"Fine." Koshi grinned right back. "Muzai, beat it out of her."

"Yes! Koshi-sama!"

"Aw, come on, let me!" Sekkaku pleaded.

"Wait your turn."

"Yes, Koshi-sama," the vampire whined.

**.x.**

"Shhh!" Kristel put her finger to her lips. "There's no telling if they've been exposed to the Dark. We'll have to break in."

"Break in!? To God's Palace?!" Leeli tip-toed behind her. "This is nuts!"

"We gotta do what we gotta do!" she hissed.

"And just what is that?" Leeli hissed back.

"Find the Ultra Holy Water and make off with it!"

They crept around the columns and kept their eyes open for any signs of Kami or his attendant. Popo was out front watering the plants. They crawled on their hands and knees behind a hedge and scooted into the palace proper. Once inside, they stood and walked slowly down the long corridors.

"Where is the Ultra Holy Water?" Leeli asked in a whisper.

"I have no idea."

"Great."

They peeked into several rooms. One contained scrolls, another strange statuary. One set of doors was immense. Leeli went to open it.

"That's the room of Spirit and Time," Kristel said, stopping her hand.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure," Kristel answered and moved on before Leeli could ask any more questions.

The last door along the hallway was half open. Kristel poked her head inside. "Ahh! Finally!"

There were innumerable vases and bowels, vials and canisters, urns and goblets, all full of water in the long, thin room. Shelves lined the walls, supporting the jars of water.

"That's just great," Leeli sighed. "Which one is it?"

"Which one is what?" a voice asked from behind them.

Both girls screamed and held on to each other.

"What's the matter?!" Dende shouted back, startled.

"Well.. we... we thought.. well..." Leeli stuttered, trying to explain, but keeping her guard up. Something about God wasn't right.

"And why are you sneaking around?" He raised a brow at the girls.

"You see..." Kristel started to explain. Leeli backed up and looked feverishly around the room.

_'The pots are all so different! Which one is the right one?'_ she thought. _'Which one contains the Ultra Holy Water I was supposed to find years ago!'_

"Leeli," Dende asked, trying to push past Kristel. "What are you doing, Leeli?"

Kristel stood in his way and continued to explain their reason for being there. "So this girl appeared out of nowhere and..."

Leeli turned and ran further into the enormous room, scanning the shelves for something that looked holy.

"LEELI!" Dende shouted and pushed past Kristel. She stuck her foot out and tripped him. Kami growled and scrambled to his feet. Kristel reached out to grab him but found herself pulled off the ground by a surprisingly strong Mr. Popo.

"Leeli! He's coming!" Kristel called.

"Damn it!" she hissed. "Which one is it!?" Dende's footfalls were getting closer. She grabbed a vase and threw its contents on the young God. No good. He kept coming. Again and again she tried this tactic, and again and again it failed. Finally, she reached the end. Leeli backed up against the wall and shook her head. 'It can't end like this!'

"Leeli, why are you running from me?" Dende asked, and evil timbre to his voice.

"Kami-sama! Please!" she cringed as he stepped forward. Her hand touched a smooth sculpted vase. In a last ditch effort, she grabbed it and threw the water in it at him. The sneer fell from his face. He dropped to his knees.

"Leeli? What happened to me?"

She sighed and explained it to him as they ran back to Popo and Kristel.

**.x.**

Muzai cracked her knuckles.

"And what do _you_ think you can do to me, human?"

Mu lowered her head and laughed lightly. "Human, right." She burst forward and threw punches Leela, which the girl blocked, but with each powerful hit, she was pushed back, creating long divots in the ground.

She stopped blocking with her hands and jumped up to block with her legs. When she arched to bring her hands down on Muzai's head she was surprised to come face to face with her. She had spun around in anticipation and grinned at her.

"Ah ah ah!" she scolded, reached out and grabbed her head, pulling it towards her own in a massive head-butt.

Leela sprawled and wobbled before she recovered. Blood oozed from her forehead. She wiped it away and cursed. "What the hell are you made out of!?"

Muzai giggled and rubbed her bindi. "That's none of your business, Little Miss Secrets!"

"Fine." Leela monotoned. "Why don't _you_ fight me, Your Highness," she spat. "Rather have your minion's do your dirty work?"

Koshi scowled. "Leeli is my friend. I do not wish to kill her sister, but if I fought you, or let one of 'my minions' finish their fight with you, you would die."

"Give me a break!" she scoffed.

"Koshi-sama! Shall I continue?" Muzai shouted.

She nodded and the fight went on.

**.x.**

Leeli and Kristel left the lookout and flew full-tilt towards the Northern Woods. Kristel could see the anxiety written on Leeli's face. She only hoped that her evil sister was still breathing when they got there.

**.x.**

Sekkaku wrung her parasol in her hands and bounced with the eagerness to fight. "Come on, come on, Muzai," she hissed. "It's been way more than 10 minutes, Koshi!" she whined.

Koshi simply held up her hand, commanding her to wait longer.

"Gah!"

Muzai avoided a punch and grabbed Leela's arm, throwing her over her head and slamming her into the ground. The Cyborg's lip curled up and she held her palm out.

"I'm done playing. How 'bout you?"

Leela panted but didn't reply. Her eyes burned with hatred. She suddenly spied two forms moving in fast from the west.

"Muzai!!" Leeli screamed. "Please don't!!"

"Ah! Crap!" Sekkaku moaned. "That's just not fair!"

Muzai stepped back, but kept a watchful eye on her defeated foe. "Relax," she folded her arms as Leeli and Kristel touched down, running towards them. "We were just playing cat and mouse with her. No biggie."

Leela was obviously a little shocked to hear this as the reality of how powerful the Majin girls were finally began to sink in.

"So," Koshi approached Leeli. "Were you successful?"

"Yes, Koshi-sama." Kristel held out the vase which held the never-ending Ultra Holy Water.

Koshi nodded to Muzai and Mameko who contained Leeli's twin down to the ground. Sekkaku backed up, the smell of the holy water repelling her.

"You can't defeat the Dark! It already has our world! It will only be a matter of time before..."

"Oh, shut up!" Muzai barked.

"It's already over. I poured this water into the dimensional gate at Kami's palace. The spirit winds will take care of the rest." Leeli knelt beside her struggling sister. "The Dark has faded, Leela. Please come back." She poured the water onto her face. Although she closed her mouth, the permeating quality of the magic liquid did the trick.

Leela stopped struggling. The girls held her down until she opened her eyes.

"Leeli...?" she whispered. "You did it. At long last you did it!" Tears rolled down her cheeks.

The sisters hugged. Koshi commended her warriors' good jobs and Sekkaku sat off to the side and ripped out grass in frustration.

**.x.**

Assembled at the lookout, Majin Nation stood and listened to Kami-sama speak of the other world and the good that they had done to save it.

"Kinda looks bad in a way, don't cha think?" Muzai whispered to Mameko. "I mean, we're trying to take over our own world, after all."

"Oh well. Maybe this will help lull everyone into a false sense of security." She shrugged and wondered if their plot to dominate the world was really more than just a joke. Koshi had been quite serious on the battlefield today. Like a true Saiyajin leader. Mameko shook her head. This was all just in fun, wasn't it?

"Come on, Leeli! Father and Mother are probably worried sick about us, especially you!"

Leeli wrung her hands. "Well, this is all so sudden!"

"You know," Dende put his hand on her shoulder. "This portal will be here forever. You can come back anytime you want."

"I can?!"

Dende nodded.

"Well, then I'll go now, but I'll be back really soon! I've met so many nice people here." She looked to Koshi for approval. "If that's ok?"

Koshi nodded.

Leeli and Leela held hands and walked towards the portal. They really did look alike. They had roughly the same build, same height, same long, pointy ears, only Leela's hair was black and Leeli's was green.

"Wait!" Muzai called out just before they crossed over. "Leela, I still want to know!" The girls looked at her, confused.

"Yes!" Koshi barked. "You cannot go until you tell us! What is it we don't know about you and Leeli?"

"Oh!" Leeli laughed.

Leela smiled. "Our mother is a Saiyajin named Kana and..."

"...Our father is Piccolo!" Leeli finished and both girls stepped into the portal.

"Later!!..."

Popo, Dende and Majin Nation stood speechless, their jaws hung open in surprise. Kristel was the only one who kept her composure. "You didn't know that?"

Koshi turned and bellowed at her, "DO YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!?"

Kristel laughed as Koshi chased her around the lookout, demanding an explanation.

Mameko sighed. "Yup, it's just gotta be all in good fun!"

_Note: Muzai was a Cyborg (not a Jinzouningen) played by Danye from Nebraska. Leeli was a Saiyajin/Namek played by Ingrid from Alaska. Sekkaku was a vampire played by Audrey from Canada._

_To be continued…_


	5. Too Good

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Five : Too Good**

On a pleasant Sunday afternoon Goku touched down on the lip of Kami's lookout and approached the palace. He held a note in his hand written in a fine, antique writing style. It read 'Your presence is requested at Kami's Lookout at a quarter to three in the afternoon on Sunday.' "Hello?" he called out. "I'm here!"

Rather than God greeting him, the vampire girl who was friends with his mother appeared in a puff of smoke before him. "Oh, good. You got my note," she purred.

"You wrote this? I could hardly read it, it's so fancy!"

She laughed lightly. "That's how we used to write in the old days." She threaded her arm through his and walked him toward the palace. "I want you to see something, Son-san."

"Uh, ok?" he agreed and followed.

"Mr. Popo? Would you come here for a second?" she called out as she saw the genie watering his garden.

"Oh, yes. Sexy gonna rub Popo?"

Goku cringed at the statement. "Sekkaku," she corrected him. "Yes. I am, unfortunately. Usually we have your mother do this, but this is a top-secret mission of mine," she said as she slipped her arm out from Goku's and rubbed the small, round man's belly a few times. "I wish that Son Goku was also Majin!"

"WHAT?!" he cried, but Popo had already performed the act. An M graced his forehead.

Sekkaku giggled with pleasure as the genie waddled away. "Oh, it becomes you, my dear! Wait till Koshi gets a load of this, she'll be ecstatic! There will be no obstacle to Majin Nation with you among its ranks!"

"Why did you do this?" Goku asked her seriously.

Sekkaku pouted. "You don't like it? It's all the rage, I hear," she said, pointing to her own M.

"When Mom got hers I told her how dangerous it was but she wouldn't…" He fell silent and a strange, blank expression came over his face. "No. This- This isn't right."

"Um, Son-san, everything alright in there?" Sekkaku asked, getting worried for the first time since thinking of this idea. _'Uh oh,'_ Sekkaku thought to herself. _'This doesn't look good. I better bring Popo back out here.'_ Very suddenly Goku turned on his heel and Shunkan Idoed into nothingness. "Uh oh! Where'd he go?" she panicked and looked high and low.

"Where is Kakarotto?" a voice growled as a shadow touched down behind her.

Sekkaku shouted in alarm. "Good thing I'm already dead!" she cried and held her chest. "Pete's sake, Vegeta what are you doing here?"

"I went to spar with him and felt that he was coming here."

"He left."

Vegeta scowled. "Where did he go?"

"Well, I'm not…"

Suddenly Vegeta boggled and turned to look over the edge of the lookout. "That's him! What happened?! His power is immense!"

Sekkaku beamed. "I wished him Majin!"

"You did _what_?!"

"Well, you see. You can rub that little black guy's tummy and…"

Vegeta reached out and grabbed Sekkaku by the neck of her dress. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"Obviously you're about to tell me…"

**.x.**

Many miles from Kami's lookout under the shadow of Mount Paozu, Chi-chi was very surprised to see her husband home so early.

"Goku-san! Let me guess, you're hungry?"

"No," he said, fairly innocently.

"Then what do you want? You're usually out training all day and it's too late for lunch and what's that mark on your forehead?"

"You know, Chi-chi," he said, his brows arching downwards. "I never loved you."

"What!?" she asked and backed away a few paces.

"Not one bit..." he walked slowly towards her.

"Goku-san! What are you saying!?" she gasped and knocked over a chair. Goku reached out quickly and grabbed her wrist. He squeezed until the bones crumbled in his hand. Chi-chi screamed out in pain and shock. Her husband sneered and knocked her through the kitchen wall.

Chi-chi sobbed and tried to crawl away, but he was on her. "Say goodnight." He brought his foot down and crushed her skull. The emotionless look fell across his face again and he lifted into the air.

**.x.**

"He's moving." Vegeta concentrated.

'This is heavy. I need backup!' Sekkaku thought wildly as she realized how upset Vegeta was. "I'll be right back!" she piped and vaporized. Vegeta didn't seem to notice. He tried to track him and think of how best to deal with a Majin Goku.

Moments later Sekkaku returned with Koshi, Leeli and Mameko in tow. Koshi saw her father and pushed Sekkaku aside to run to his side.

Leeli held Mameko who was nearly hyperventilating, wide-eyed with shock.

"I didn't know it would be a huge problem!" Sekkaku insisted.

"Just shut it, will you!" Koshi barked. "What can we do, Father?"

Mameko spoke up. "Oujisama, you can feel his whereabouts. Please, take me to him!"

"No. We wait."

The girls were silent, waiting as their Prince had commanded.

**.x.**

Bulma typed a few lines of code and sipped her tea. It was early in the afternoon and she knew she could work for a few more hours before her kids would come looking for food. She leaned back and looked at the monitor. "Damn," she said to herself. "I gotta get my eyes checked." As she was squinting to focus on the program she was working on, she saw something flicker across the screen's reflective surface. She turned around to see what it was.

"Oh! Damn it, Goku! You scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry."

Bulma stood and held her chest. "It's bad enough that Vegeta seems to want to put me into an early grave by doing that to me all the time..." she stopped short and raised a brow. "You ok? Is something happening?"

"You could say that."

She at last saw the mark on his forehead and gasped. "You're- you're Majin."

He nodded, his features were noticeably dark.

"So..." Bulma took a few steps apprehensively towards the door. _'Vegeta, please be home,' _she thought frantically. "How's that working out for you? You know Koshi just loves it, though I really think it's just a phase."

"Hm," he sneered. "Then for me I suppose it's a mid-life crisis."

Bulma laughed weakly and felt for the door switch. She turned her head to look for it and there he was, blocking her path. She cried out in alarm. "Goku, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, Bulma. Nothing at all."

"Yes! Yes there is! You're not the same! You don't act like this! Stop it!" she screamed. He pinned her to the door.

"It's too late for me," he breathed in her face. "And for you." Goku took her head in his hands and snapped her neck with a quick motion. She slumped to the floor, dead.

**.x.**

Vegeta and Koshi gasped.

"No!" Koshi let out a short cry.

"Bulma," Vegeta whispered. His brows met in the middle. At last powered up and shot off into the air, heading for Capsule.

"What just happened?" Leeli shouted.

Mameko grabbed Koshi's arms. "Koshi-sama, what is it?"

"My mother is dead." Her eyes looked forward, but she was lost in grief.

"This can't be." Mameko ground her teeth. "Leeli, come with me. Sekkaku, stay here with Koshi-sama."

"But I want to help fix this!" the vampire protested.

Mameko ignored her request. "If he's been swallowed by the power of Majin, I may be the only one who can reach him. Koshi-sama is in shock. Please stay with her."

Sekkaku noticed Koshi's vacant, open-mouthed stare and nodded. Mameko looked to Leeli who also nodded and they took off after Vegeta.

**.x.**

By the time Vegeta reached his home, Goku was long gone. He charged through the front door and looked into the living room, kitchen and bedroom. No luck. He then ran down the connection to her private lab. Vegeta pushed the button to open the door and to his horror, his wife's body, which had been leaning up against it, fell towards him. He caught her in his arms and sat there for a minute, his tears falling silently onto her cool skin.

**.x.**

In the gigantic CEO office at Capsule Corp's downtown headquarters, Muzai giggled.

"Mu..." Trunks smiled. "I know I usually make you meet me here for illicit reasons." He blushed a little and loosened his tie. A box of tissues was close at hand. The beautiful eighteen year old girl was sitting on his lap.

"Yes?" she batted her eyelashes at him.

"But I have something serious I want to..."

"Discuss?" she tried to help speed things up.

"No. Um, ask you."

"Shoot."

"Um, Muzai. Do you think I'm too old for you?"

"What?!" she laughed. "You're a Saiyajin, I'm a Cyborg, who cares how old we are?"

He sighed a little.

"Was that it?"

Trunks's stomach flip-flopped. "Uh, I should get back to work now!" he laughed and stood up, effectively dumping her off of his lap.

"Trunks!" she shouted. "You are just so weird!" Muzai frowned and stomped to the door. Trunks opened the top, right-hand drawer to his desk and touched a small white box. He struggled, but still couldn't do it. He closed the drawer.

"Oh!" Muzai shouted. Trunks's head whipped up. Standing in front of Muzai was Son Goku. Trunks was about to say hello when Goku reached out and plunged his hand through Muzai's chest. Blood and sparks emanated from the wound as he pulled his hand back out. He walked over her body and grinned at Trunks.

"What have you done!?!" Trunks cried and charged him. He never got so much as a punch in before he too was run through. The grin fell from Goku's face and he put his now bloody fingers to his head again.

**.x.**

When Mameko and Leeli arrived at Capsule, Vegeta had laid Bulma's body on the couch and covered her with a throw; her favorite one with the angels on it. Except for her neck being a little too crooked, she seemed to only be sleeping.

Leeli hung her head.

"Oujisama, there must be something we can do."

"Why did you do this?" he whispered without turning away from Bulma

Mameko began to cry again. She knew that even if she wasn't directly responsible, the fact that she was a member of Majin Nation made her partially to blame. "I'm sure Sekkaku didn't realize…"

"Majin takes all the evil in a person and multiplies their power-level by how much evil there is. Sekkaku _should_ be the strongest Majin because she's a vampire, but Kakarotto is infinitely more powerful. It's almost as if all the good in him has been negated. If he was 100 good before, he's 1000 evil now."

"We've got to at least try to stop him!"

"You can't!" he shouted. "There's no stopping him. Even I cannot possibly stand up against such a destructive force."

Leeli gnawed on her fingers. Mameko's tears fell to the floor. She dropped to her knees and began to mutter to herself.

"Please, Kakarotto, Please hear me..."

**.x.**

Sekkaku paced back and forth. Dende startled her by shouting.

"What, what is it?"

"Trunks and Muzai!"

"Trunks?" Koshi whispered and slid down against a column. She sat and stared out, grief and guilt consuming her.

"Damn it!" Sekkaku cursed. She grabbed God by the collar. "Where is he now?!" Dende had had just about enough of the Majins, so he told her where to go. "Look after Koshi for me," she asked and shot off to the west in search of Goku.

**.x.**

Just to the East of Capsule Corp, Goku flew along at break-neck speed in a bee-line for Juunanagou's cabin, where he knew he's find his son, still obliviously locked in a closet. He was visibly shocked to be met by a vampire.

He came to an abrupt stop and folded his arms. The evil look fell across his face again. "Shouldn't you be more careful? You're gonna get a sunburn."

"SPF 300," Sekkaku pointed to her ivory skin. "You should be careful. Seems wherever you go, people drop dead."

He shrugged. "Are you going to try to stop me?" Goku laughed.

"No. I _am_ going to stop you. I might have messed this up, but I can also stop what I started." Sekkaku clenched her fists and powered up. Her eyes glowed bright yellow, her fangs protruded and her relatively light frame bulked up. She flew at Evil Goku.

Energy arched around them as Goku tried to out-maneuver the vampire. She leapt out of the way in plenty of time and landed a kick to the back of his head. She flipped, jumped off the ground and punched the large man in the jaw, good and hard, sending him flying a good 100 yards away before he caught himself. Goku flew leisurely back to her.

"Well, well. This is a nice surprise!" he laughed.

Sekkaku kept her stance. Her breath was even, her mind was clear, but she was still a little frightened of his power. "Will you kill me to, Son-san? Like you did the others?"

"Yes, I will."

"Why?!" she shouted. "You're a good person! The rest of us didn't freak out when we went Majin, so why you?!"

He shrugged. "Cause it feels good." He sneered and charged again. Just as he was about to land a punch, his eyes drifted from his target. Sekkaku took the opportunity to bring her fists down on his head.

_'What the hell?!'_ she thought wildly. _'He just left himself wide open for a second. What was that?' _

The respite was brief however. Goku shook his head and came at her again.

**.x.**

"Mameko...?" Leeli touched her shoulder. "Are you ok?"

She rocked back and forth lightly on her knees, mumbling to herself. "Kakarotto-kun, please come back to us. I love you, my son. Please hear me..."

Vegeta heard the name and looked over. "What is she doing?"

"I dunno." Leeli shrugged. "You think she can talk to him like that?"

Vegeta frowned and looked back to his dead wife. "It doesn't matter. There's nothing we can do."

"Oh!" Mameko cried.

"What is it!?"

"I felt him! He reached out to me! Just for a moment, but I got through the enchantment. He's close. Oujisama, where is he?"

"It's no use..."

"Tell me!"

"You'll be killed!" he shouted back.

Frustrated to the point of tears again Mameko shouted at him in Saiyago. "He's my son. I must try! Surely you can understand that, Highness! Where is he?!" 

Vegeta sighed. "Just east of here."

"Thank you, Oujisama," Mameko said in a reverent tone and ran out of the room with Leeli hot on her heels.

**.x.**

They could see the arcs of light for miles. Mameko and Leeli were both shocked and amazed to see their friend going head to head with the unstoppable killing machine. Goku threw Sekkaku through a grove of trees and cracked his neck. He looked up at the floating women and sneered.

"Hello, Mother."

Mameko floated down and began to walk towards him. Her fear pushed down under her desire to save her only son. "Kakarotto..." she began. "My little boy."

"I'm not a child. Don't call me that."

"You are my son."

"I am old enough to be your father."

"You look so much like your father."

"Shut up." He winced.

"He would be so proud if he could have seen all that you've done for this world..."

"I said SHUT UP!" Still, Goku stood where he was. Leeli watched from the sky above, her heart racing.

"I love you, Kakarotto." She stepped closer, determined.

Goku's face distorted. "I... Mom? Help me..." His brows arched upwards.

"I'm here. Don't worry," Mameko shushed him and was close enough to touch him. As she reached out to put her arms around him his sneer returned.

"Yes... help me," he feigned.

Sekkaku burst out of the woods and grabbed Mameko as she ran by, depositing her a hundred feet out of his grasp. "Oh no you don't!" She spread her feet and took a stance. "Yeah, remember me, pal? I'm the one who did this to you, remember? We're not done, oh no. I'm just gettin' warmed up! Leeli!"

"Yeah?" she called from her safe distance.

"Get Mameko outta here. I'll take down Goku."

"Ok!" she shouted and flew down.

"NO!" Mameko tried to get in the way. "Please! There must be another way! I got through to him, I know I did!"

With the girls distracted, Goku moved instantaneously and struck Sekkaku down with a chop to the neck, snapping it.

"No!" Leeli shouted.

He laughed and crept towards the remaining girls.

Sekkaku sat up and cracked her head back in place. "O ye of little faith!" she laughed. "You gotta do better than that to stop a dead girl, pal!"

Goku rolled his eyes. "Fine." He took a familiar stance. "Kame..."

**.x.**

Dende, Koshi and Popo watched the proceedings through a crystal ball. Koshi shook her head. "No.. no no no... this all wouldn't have happened if we hadn't wished him Majin!" she cried, finally regaining her senses. Her eyes went wide. She lunged at Popo and started rubbing. "I wish Kakarotto to not be Majin anymore!"

**.x.**

"Hame...!"

"Oh no. This is it!" Leeli cried.

"Kakarotto, NO!"

Sekkaku braced herself.

"..."

Slowly, Sekkaku opened her eyes. Goku was standing there, looking lost with his hands at his sides. The M was gone from his forehead.

"Goku?" she asked tentatively. "You ok?"

He fell to his knees and hung his head. Mameko rushed to his side.

"Kakarotto!" She hugged him and stroked his hair as if he were a child. "It's all right, now." She lifted his face so she could look into his eyes.

"I killed them..." His tears flowed down his cheeks. "Bulma, Trunks and Muzai... and Chichi. I killed my Chichi." His eyes focused on the M on her forehead.

"Oh, Kakarotto, I'm sorry. This is our fault. How could we do this to you?"

He pushed away from her and got to his feet. Wordlessly, he lighted into the air and flew off towards the coast. Mameko hugged herself for a moment, the followed him.

Sekkaku sighed and looked to Leeli. "He really killed Chichi, too?"

"I guess so." She thought of the look on Vegeta's face. "We should go to Capsule. I'm concerned about Vegeta."

Sekkaku nodded and they took off.

**.x.**

"But, my mother..." Koshi looked away from the crystal ball after she saw Goku was all right. "And Trunks..." she lunged at Popo again. "Bring them back to life!"

**.x.**

Vegeta sat on the coffee table, still staring at her ashen face. He tried to remember what her laugh sounded like. He found it incomprehensible that he would never hear it again. The Prince held his face in his hands and sobbed.

"My neck is sore..."

"…?!"

Bulma was sitting up, rubbing her neck and very much alive.

"Bulma!" he shouted.

"What?!" she asked, alarmed. "Vegeta, are you... crying?"

He wiped his face with his forearm and grabbed her.

"Vegeta!"

"I love you," he said into her shoulder as he hugged her tightly.

She blushed, confused. "Oh, Vegeta, I love you too." She smiled and enjoyed the hug. "I just had a wicked nightmare," she confessed, "that Goku killed me."

"Yes, a nightmare," he whispered. "It's all right now."

Bulma sighed, glad to know that it had all been in her head. She looked up and saw Leeli and Sekkaku standing off in the doorway. She gently pushed her husband back and indicated to the girls.

"Do you know how to knock?" the Prince growled.

"Sorry, Oujisama, but we thought we should tell you it's over."

"It must be," he nodded to Bulma.

The girls smiled.

"Where is he now?"

"He took off, Mameko followed him."

"Who?" Bulma asked. Vegeta waved for her to forget about it.

"So he's no longer a concern?"  
"Nope," Sekkaku folded her arms. "And I don't see what the big deal was, he wasn't all that strong."

Vegeta glared at her and she cringed and grabbed Leeli as she hurriedly left the room.

"Who are you talking about?" Bulma pried.

"Nothing," her husband barked. "Why don't you, take a nap or something."

"I just _did_. Vegeta, what's going on?" she became cross and stood up.

**.x.**

Mameko found Goku sitting on a rock outcropping along the breakers about a half a mile off shore. She approached cautiously and hovered just beside him.

"May I?" she asked.

He shrugged.

Mameko seated herself next to him.

"It wasn't your fault," she began. "It was mine."

"That's not the point. I killed them. Ruthlessly, brutally."

"I'm sure they've been wished back..."

"Doesn't matter. I still know what I did. They'll still remember what I did. Everything is changed now. Things will never be the same."

Mameko choked back her tears. "You know, Vegeta said that the reason you were so powerful as a Majin was because you were too good. The enchantment took all that goodness and flipped it around, making you not only evil, but super evil. The rest of us all have a little evil in our hearts. You don't. Everyone knows that."

He was silent. She wasn't sure if her words were helping, but he hadn't asked her to leave yet.

"I meant what I said before. How proud Bardock would have been, if he could have seen all that you've done."

"Really?" he asked, timidly.

She nodded. "I'm so glad that I found you, my Kakarotto. My only son. Please forgive me."

"Mom." He pouted. "You didn't know what Sekkaku had planned or what it would do to me. It's ok."

Mameko leaned over against his shoulder and they hugged. "I love you very much. I just wish there was a way I could make it all better!"

Goku squeezed his eyes shut and hugged his mother back.

**.x.**

Koshi stalked Popo. "Come on, one more!"

He guarded his Indian-burned stomach and stepped back. "No!"

"I want to make Kakarotto forget!"

"NO!"

"Popo-san," Dende stepped forward. "Allow me."

He let his guard down and God wiped a finger across the reddish skin to make his wish. "Considering that Popo's wishes cannot be retroactive, I wish that Koshi, Sekkaku, Leeli, Muzai, Kristel and Mameko were no longer Majin all their memories of Majin Nation to be erased."

"Done!"

Koshi blinked and looked from Dende to Popo. "Um, what was I doing here again?"

"You were just leaving." Dende said, curtly.

"But...?"

"Go, Koshi. Go home."

She furrowed her brows. Something had gone down, and God wasn't about to let her in on it. She turned and flew off for home.

"Will that cover it, Kami-sama?"

"I should hope so, Popo. We've heard the last of Majin Nation."

**.x.**

Sekkaku flopped down on the sofa. "Whatcha watchin'?" she asked Bulma.

Bulma blinked and looked up to the clock. "Must be a good movie on, it's a Saturday after all."

"Hope there's a Mel Brooks on!" Leeli took a seat next to the vampire.

"When's Koshi getting home?"

Bulma shrugged and surfed.

Vegeta stared at his wife, shivered a little and went off to train.

The door to Kristel's lab slid open and she stretched as she stepped up into the living room. "Hey kids, whadd' I miss?"

**.x.**

Chichi climbed out of the rubble and scratched her head. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HOUSE!!" she cried.

**.x.**

"Muzai, wait." Trunks pulled the desk drawer open again.

She stopped and folded her arms. "What now? Are you going to ask if I think size matters?"

When she didn't get the typical flabbergasted reply she had hoped for, she raised a brow and turned around. She looked down. Trunks was on one knee.

"Muzai Mizuno..." he began. "Will you be my wife?" He held out a shimmering diamond ring.

She stuttered and trembled as he took her hand and slipped the ring on her left ring finger. Muzai held it up closer and then looked down at him. She laughed, giddy with delight. "Sure!"

"Yeah?!"

"Yeah!"

He stood and she wrapped her arms around him.

**.x.**

Goku released his mother and looked off into the horizon. "Well, I better be getting back home. Maybe you can come by some night and tell me more about my dad, and Vegeta-sei."

"You know, I have a house too!" she play-hit his arm. "Don't be a stranger!"

"I promise I won't!"

Mameko smiled and stood up. She hugged her 45 year old son again and they both took off for their respective homes.

** A month later **

Mameko had been sick for a few days and when her herbal remedies failed to work, she began to get nervous. She was on the phone to call a doctor when Juunanagou put his finger on the receiver.

"You don't need a doctor."

She blinked at him.

"Last night, I felt it."

"Felt...?" she began to ask. "Oh no. I'm pregnant again." Mameko sat down.

"Maybe this time it'll be ok?"

"And if it's not!? Nana I can't lose another one, I just can't! I need, what do they call them here, an OBNYG?"  
"OBGYN."

"That."

Juunanagou rubbed his hands together. "Do you think that's wise? An alien and an android going to a human doctor? They'd probably make it into front page news."

"I don't care! I want to keep this one, Nana!"

_"Excuse me," _a voice echoed off the walls of the log-cabin. _"Hello, it's Kami. I would very much like to see you both as soon as possible."_

Mameko and Juunanagou exchanged worried looks, but headed out towards the lookout anyway.

**.x.**

"Thank you for coming." Dende sat across from them at a table inside the palace. He wasted no time and got straight to the point. "Mameko, I would like to be your doctor."

She gripped the table to prevent herself from falling. "Kami-sama, I'm deeply honored, but why?"

"Well, you're special. And I know how much concern you have for your baby's health."

She made a face.

"It's all right, you can't hide anything from me." He smiled a little.

Juunanagou rested his ankle on his knee. "Why is Mameko special? Because of what we are?"

"Well, not particularly. Your sister had a perfectly healthy baby, so there's really no reason why Mameko shouldn't."

"But I _didn't_."

"Yes," Dende pressed his fingers together. "You were also fresh from a 40 year nap in stasis." He stood and paced a bit. "What I'm about to tell you must never leave here."

The couple exchanged glances and then nodded to God. He told them the very bare bones of what they had to know.

"You see, a short while ago, you, Mameko, were enchanted by the power of Majin, then made to forget that it ever happened. I believe that your baby was conceived while you were under this evil influence, and I'm not sure at this point whether the baby will be affected by this.

"Mameko was Majin?!" Juunanagou shouted.

"What's that?!" she cried. Dende did his best to explain without giving away any of the unpleasantness that went along with it.

**.x.**

Mameko wrung her hands.

"So please come see me every first Monday and I'll see how it's going, all right?"

She sighed. "God as my doctor? Ok."

They said thank you and headed home.

"Nana, I don't want to tell any of our friends until I know for sure that everything's ok."

He nodded and held her hand as they flew north.

** Seven months later **

Outside the delivery room, Kristel, Sekkaku, Muzai, Trunks, Leeli, Goten, Koshi and Chichi waited anxiously. Koshi made a face every time she heard Mameko scream.

"I am _never_ having kids!" she shouted.

"Oh, you'll change your tune when you meet the right man." Chichi flipped through a maternity magazine.

Koshi grumbled something about Chichi and Goku under her breath.

"Yeah..." Muzai read over Chi-chi's shoulder and sighed. "Babies are so cute!"

Trunks blushed. "Oi, don't get any funny ideas, Mu."

Kristel and Leeli sighed a little too. Sekkaku stood up and next to Koshi. "This over yet?"

Juunanagou poked his head out. "If you wanna see it, get in her now!" he shouted.

Koshi shrugged. "I've seen worse." She strode, alone, into the delivery room.

"Here comes!" the doctor announced as she helped navigate the head out. Koshi turned a bit blue, but continued to watch.

"Ok, one more big push!"

"Ahhh!" Mameko thought she was going to explode. Then finally, the familiar release, the rush of it all coming out at last as the baby and placenta finally came out.

"It's a boy!"

They cleared his mouth and nose and handed the unwashed, betailed infant to Mameko, whose arms were already stretched out to receive him.

She looked to her mate quickly and they both tried to conceal their horror. On the newborn's forehead was a tiny, Cyrillic M. He wailed and screamed and Mameko's heart crept up into her throat.

_'Oh, no,'_ she thought. But just as she was about to cry in sorrow, the baby quieted. She stroked his fine, black hair and shushed him. The Majin M faded away. Juunanagou and she both sighed with relief. Mameko looked around to see in anyone had noticed. It seemed not. Koshi had already gone out to tell the others the news. She didn't see the mark.

"Hello," Mameko whispered in Saiyago. "Welcome. Your name is Akira." She then repeated it for Juunanagou. "I never got to say that to Kakarotto." She smiled through her tears.

Goku ran in to the reception room.

"Goku-san!" Chichi scolded. "Always late!"

"I MISSED IT!?" he cried.

"Yes!"

"Crap."

There was a commotion from the delivery room. "... Really, you shouldn't be walking around just yet!"

Mameko jeered the doctor. "I'll do what I like!" She slammed the door shut with her tail. Juunanagou came out after her and apologized to the doctor.

She held out the cleaned up baby. "Look what we made!" she laughed. "Akira, meet your family!"

They all took turns passing him around and even Sekkaku admitted he was cute. He didn't cry once. His eyes were as shockingly blue as his father's. By the time he got around to Goku, Mameko was getting tired. He sat next to his mom and held his brother.

"He's just great, Mom!" he marveled.

"Mm-hm," She hummed and leaned against his shoulder. "Thank you for being here."

"No problem. Anything for my Mom."

After only a short argument with the hospital staff, Mameko was allowed to go home that night and the strange little family slept soundly, at least for a few hours before Akira woke them up, needing to be fed. But even then, he didn't cry. He simply fussed and drew attention to himself. It would be a few years before Akira would cry again.

_To be continued…_


	6. Akira's Curse

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Six : Akira's Curse**

Akira sang off tune to himself as he toddled into the woods. The mid afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees. A butterfly wafted just a few feet ahead of him. He laughed and chased it, not realizing he was wandering away from the little cabin his family and he called home.

The butterfly floated up on the breeze and away from him. He frowned slightly, but his two-year old mind quickly shifted interest. He looked around and didn't recognize his surroundings. As panic set in, he started to run. Tears welled up in his eyes and he sucked in his breath, ready to let free a desperate cry for his mother. This was quelled when he tripped over something and landed flat on his face. Akira was surprised and before he could begin to cry over this as well as his disorientation, he noticed what he had tripped over.

**.x.**

Mameko finished marinating the roast and put it in the oven. Juunanagou would be home soon. If she could just get Akira in the bath before then, maybe, just maybe she could keep him clean for a few hours. Her ears perked up as she heard his feet tapping quickly though the house, into the bathroom.

_'Oh what a good boy!'_ she thought. _'Getting himself ready for dinner! He's so smart!'_ Her smile fell when she heard him run back outside.

Mameko wandered to the front door and put her hands on her hips. Akira was jogging into the woods, medical tape and bandages streaming from his arms. "That boy, what is he up to now?"

Just inside the forest, Mameko found Akira bustling around, a roll of medical tape in one hand and a band aid, half of which was stuck to a good load of pine needles in the other.

"Ok, mister. Just what is going on here?"

He looked as all children who are caught in the act do: surprised, yet innocent. He pointed into a low shrub. "I wanna fix him..."

"What have you got there, a bird or a little animal?" she asked and parted the branches. Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the patient. A young man lay in the shrubs. His hair was mostly matted to his head by blood. He was unconscious and Mameko could barely feel his life force. She instinctively grabbed Akira and backed off from the scene.

"Go get the phone."

"Moma?"

"Please! Akira, bring the phone to Moma!" She struggled to think if that was such a good idea, but she would rather have her eye on the situation. Akira ran into the house and emerged moments later with the portable phone.

Quickly, Mameko called her husband's cell phone, ticking off another marker in her mind as she did so. This wasn't the first time the device Juunanagou had been loath to get had come in handy.

**.x.**

Although he had to come from miles away, Juunanagou was there almost instantaneously.

"Are you alright?!" he asked as he touched down, running.

Mameko adjusted Akira on her hip. "Yes, but he's almost dead." She motioned to the shrubs.

"Who is he?"

"Beats me, but he needs attention. Akira, go inside." She put her son down and when he hesitated, gently pushed him towards the house. She turned her attention to the wounded stranger. "Nana, use the blanket I brought out as a stretcher and help me get him inside."

"Mameko! We have no idea who this guy is!"

"And that matters because..?" She shot him a look and he grumbled under his breath, but did as he was told.

The young man was perhaps six feet tall and had course, but straight, blue-black hair. They carried him in and laid him on the floor in the living room. Mameko called their doctor and by the end of the evening it looked like he would pull through.

**.x.**

Juunanagou sat up all night watching the stranger. He, as well as his wary wife, had an unsettling feeling about this stranger. What had happened to him? And why had he found himself here? Juunanagou waited for him to awaken.

**.x.**

The day passed anxiously. Akira seemed to watch the sleeping stranger every second. Mameko tried to get some house work done. She folded laundry in the basement. With the door open, the sound of the washer and drier could be heard throughout much of the house. Juunanagou got up and went into to see if he could help.

"Let me." He took the basket from his wife. She smiled and gave him a kiss. Mameko wandered up into the kitchen and got a glass of water.

Akira took the opportunity to walk up and get a good look at the stranger. He was laid out on the floor in the living room and breathing deeply. Were it not for the pained expression that never left his face, he seemed to be doing very well. Akira reached out tentatively and poked the stranger's cheek. To his shock, his eyes flickered open.

Before he could get a good look at him, Akira ran into the kitchen.

"Moma, Moma! He's 'wake!"

Mameko instructed her son to stay in the kitchen and she emerged to investigate.

He was standing up and feeling the bandage on his head. He was also staring at a photo of the Saiyajin woman on the wall. Slowly he turned and looked at her.

"Are you Mameko?"

Her tail wagged quickly from side to side. She stood firm, but knew there was something wrong. Akira peeked out from behind a series of herb jars at the scene.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"No one of consequence," he answered and leveled his gaze at her stomach. His face as grave as stone. "I'm sorry but I must destroy your baby before he destroys you all."

"What?!" she cried. Juunanagou heard this over the loud appliances and charged into the room. Mameko backed away.

The stranger aimed his hand at her midsection and powered up.

Juunanagou growled and fired his own blast at him from behind, sending the stranger crashing through the fireplace. He burst from the rubble and punched Juunanagou several times, all the while his power level was skyrocketing.

When he had Juunanagou sufficiently subdued, he charged Mameko again. Just before he reached her, Akira (who would be three in June) leapt out of the kitchen and rammed into the stranger. He flew back from the impact, but got to his feet quickly.

Akira hissed as he drew in breath. His eyes were narrowed and focused on his opponent. A large Majin M graced his tiny forehead.

"Akira! No!!" his mother shouted.

"What? I'm that far off? Damn it! I'm too late, it's started already!!" The stranger twitched. "Mameko, Juunanagou, get out of here. I can't control it much longer!" With his back turned to them, they could not see as an M was drawn as if by invisible hands on the stranger's own forehead. When they didn't move, he fired a pulse of energy at the couple which threw them out of the house through a large picture window. He then rushed at the little boy.

After just a few minutes, the sounds of battle stopped. The parents ran in to locate their son.

"Akira! Akira!!" Mameko dug through the bricks and wood towards the energy her son emitted. Juunanagou pulled him out and examined him. The mark was gone, and he was both alive and relatively unhurt. The stranger was in a similar state, only the wound they had found on his head had re-opened. Mameko made sure Akira was all right then began to pull the stranger out of the wreckage.

"Mameko!? What are you doing!?"

"I don't know, he's just… There's something..." she muttered as she tended to him. "He said my baby would destroy us and you saw for yourself just now how powerful he was. Maybe this man knows more about Akira then we do."

"Well, if he wakes up again, this will probably happen again and we've run out of houses for him to destroy." Juunanagou sneered and looked at the chimney. Mameko winced as a few more bricks fell from what was left of it. She wandered in to where the living room had been and pulled out a photograph of the little family in its broken frame.

"Mameko," Juunanagou cradled his son against his shoulder. "Maybe this man is right. He wasn't listening to us. Akira didn't even know we were there. If it weren't for this stranger to fight, maybe he would have hurt us."

"No! No, not my baby. He wouldn't..."

Juunanagou sighed. "Perhaps you should call in a favor to the Son House," he said and handed his cell phone to her. "We could use the backup." Mameko nodded and dialed the number.

**.x.**

When the stranger awoke, he was surprised to be in a new location. The walls were white and bright. The sweet smell of food hung in the air. Sunlight streamed in through a nearby window and for a moment, he sighed. "Perhaps it was all a dream."

"Nope. Fraid not, friend." A high-pitched voice soothed. "Mind if I ask what you have against my mom?"

The stranger blinked. "Mom? You're...?"

"I'm Goku. Who are you?" he asked, still calm, and in a soft voice so as not to wake his family.

The stranger seemed taken aback but tried his best to hide it from the older man. "I'm no one of consequence."

"So I've heard." Goku folded his arms. "Please tell me. What's your problem with my mom?" he asked again, a hint of anger in his voice.

"Your mother? Not...?"

"Mameko," Goku answered, still waiting.

"I don't understand," he started, but then hung his head. "It's not her, it's Akira. He's a natural born Majin. He can't control his powers. He'll kill you all if I don't kill him first."

Goku raised a brow. "You think you could take him on?"

"I'm one, too." The stranger replied, still not lifting his head. "And uncontrollable, just older. I'm not as emotional as I was when I was a child."

"Well, how 'bout we train and see if we can't do something about that?"

The stranger looked up, wide-eyed at the Saiyajin. "But you don't understand. I destroyed you all!" he blurted out.

Goku pursed his lips. "So that's it." He stood up and paced away from him, keeping his voice low. "You must have taken us all by surprise. That's too bad. Must be a sad world to live in."

"Uh, do you mind telling me how you know all that?"

Goku grinned and pulled a capsule out of his pocket. "I found this on ya." It was marked 'number one' and showed its age.

"The time machine."

He nodded solemnly. "So. Training? You in or out, Little Bro?"

"In." Mirai Akira stood slowly. "But how can you possibly be my brother?"

Goku laughed lightly. "It's a long story. Come on. We'll have plenty of time to tell stories in the Room of Spirit and Time."

**.x.**

Mameko woke slowly in her son's house. She yawned and tried to pretend that she was on vacation. She didn't want to think about her destroyed home, or her troubled son. Akira lay, snoring lightly, between her and her husband. She stroked his hair and brushed her thumb over the spot where the M had appeared.

Juunanagou's eyes opened. "Morning." He too touched his son and met his wife's gaze. "Everything is going to be all right." He slid out of bed, came around to her side and kissed her before leaving the guest room. Mameko hugged Akira to herself and tried hard not to cry.

Juunanagou popped his head back in the door. "He's gone!"

"What?"

Mameko leapt up and ran into the living room. The blanket the stranger had been sleeping on was neatly folded, but there was no trace of him.

"Kakarotto!" she cried and looked desperately into the rooms of the Son House for him. Chi-chi and Goten came out of their bedrooms, awakened by the clamor.

"What's this?" Chi-chi asked, startled.

"The stranger has fled!" Mameko wailed.

Chi-chi remained calm. She walked to the refrigerator and picked a note off of it. She returned to the living room and presented the note to her mother-in-law.

"I told Goku-san that if he took off without telling me where he was going one more time I'd never cook another meal for him."

Mameko held the note in disbelief.

'_Me and the stranger are at Kami's. Be back tomorrow, Luv Goku.'_

"What?!"

"He must know what he's doing." Juunanagou shrugged.

Mameko flopped down into a chair and shook her head. "I certainly hope so!" She lay the back of her hand on her forehead. "Children! They'll be the death of me!"

Akira waddled out of the guest room, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Moma?" he asked. When he saw her, he beamed and ran to her. He jumped up into her lap and hugged her.

Goten and Chi-chi couldn't help but say 'aw'. Juunanagou smiled. "What was that you were saying about kids?"

Mameko tried to suppress her own smile and cradled Akira. "Ok, maybe I'll have just a couple more..."

**.x.**

The next day, Goku and his brother from the future emerged from the Room of Spirit and Time. Dende smiled as the door finally opened. Goku and he dropped Super Saiyajin but Dende's smile fell as he noticed the mark on the young man's forehead.

"G-G-G-G-Goku… er…" Kami stuttered.

"Huh?" he asked and looked where Dende was pointing. "Oh! Hey, Bro, you can drop it now."

"Oh!" Akira blushed and relaxed, turning off his Majin power. "Sorry, Kami-sama.

Dende blinked, trying to understand what he had just seen and heard.

"Thanks again, Dende!" Goku smiled and waved good-bye as he put his hand on Mirai Akira's shoulder and his fingers to his own forehead.

Dende waved weakly as the siblings Shunkan-Idoed away.

**.x.**

The sun had only just risen when they arrived. Goku started walking into his house. Akira stood where he was.

"Coming in?"

"I don't think that's a great idea. They're blissfully ignorant. And now that you know how to teach me to control myself, you can keep Akira from killing everyone. I came here to prevent your deaths. I suppose I succeeded after all." Mirai Akira smiled sadly.

"So you're going back there? You know, It'll be the same as you left it."

"I know. Bulma told me."

Goku nodded. "Well, good luck, Little Brother."

"Thanks, Goku. I am very glad to have met you." A corner of his mouth turned up in a sad smile as he took to the sky. Goku waved until he was out of sight.

**.x.**

When he had cleared the house, Mirai Akira exploded the capsule and climbed into the aging time machine. He set the controls for just a day after he had left.

"Time enough for reflection," he thought out loud. Akira took a deep breath and jumped through time.

As he leaned back and watched the ether swish around the craft, he tried to remember what his mother sounded like; what color the Son House was painted; the smell of the blanket Mameko had wrapped around him. His own memories were fuzzy. Perhaps he would never remember, but after Bulma had told him the real story, he couldn't seem to shake it.

**.x.x.**

One afternoon when Akira was just about 3 years old, Vegeta had come to pay a visit to discuss a trip that Mameko and he were planning. Goku and Koshi were present as well. There had been an argument. Akira had been deeply upset by his Mother's anger and Vegeta's stubbornness didn't help cool the conversation. Akira became too emotional and went Majin.

Goku, Juunanagou, Koshi, Vegeta and Mameko were all killed. He didn't remember doing it. Chi-chi found him lying unconscious in the charred rubble of the cabin. She took him home to live with her.

A few years later, there was a party at Gohan and Videl's house. Bulma told him she had no idea what could have set him off, but Gohan, Videl, Trunks, Muzai and Goten were all killed. Trunks and Muzai's children, Hiro and Michelle were with Bulma, and Chi-chi had taken little Pan to see her ailing grandfather, the Ox King, so they survived.

Akira was raised by Chi-chi who always told him that she was his grandmother and that a murderer had killed his family. When he was old enough, Akira set out, without telling his grandmother, to find this man.

In the city, he met a nice girl named Michelle. She took him home one night, because he had no place to stay. She identified with him. Most of her family had been killed as well - by a murderer. When he went to her house he noticed right away that Michelle's grandmother was uneasy around him. When he told her his story, Bulma seemed different, but still uneasy. He stayed there at Capsule Corp for a week.

Then one day Bulma told him she knew his family. She took him to the ruin of the cabin and said she knew who the murderer was... she was looking right at him. Akira had killed his family and her husband and children as well. When at last he believed her story, he begged her to take his life, but Bulma had other plans.

On the day he was to leave in the time machine with instructions to kill Mameko before she could give birth to him and to then kill himself, Michelle and her twin brother Hiro overheard their discussion. They proceeded to beat Akira to within an inch of his life. Bulma saved him and put him in the time machine, but his wounds were too great. He lost consciousness just as he imploded the time machine in the past, only yards from his target.

And he might have died there, had it not been for Bulma setting the date too late and the inquisitive little boy who saved him and saved himself.

**.x.x.**

The time machine popped into the future. It landed in the Capsule House's front yard.

Bulma ran out of the house as she saw the craft appear outside the living room window. Akira neatly imploded the device and handed the capsule to her. Bulma stood a few feet away from him, looking and waiting. She did not take the capsule.

"Well?" she asked anxiously. "I really didn't expect to see you back here again."

"I succeeded without having to take my own life."

"How is that possible?"

"My brother - who I used to think was my grandfather - intercepted me. He took me to the room of spirit and time where he taught me to control my powers. And he'll teach the past-me too. They'll _all_ live."

Bulma forced her heart to stop racing and extended her hand to take the capsule. That was the best they could do. She had to move on.

"Gramma!" a voice called out. A young woman with long, lavender hair came running out of the house. "Stay back! Get away from him!!"

"Michelle, it's alright!" Bulma tried to tell her what Akira had told her, but she was unstoppable.

"I thought I'd seen the last of you, you monster!"

"Michelle," Akira pouted and held out his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I have learned..."

She cut him off. "When will we be rid of you!? You murdering bastard!!"

Akira hung his head.

"Oh no, he's changing!" Bulma gasped. "Please, Michelle, don't provoke him!"

"You killed my mother and my father, my aunt, my grandfather and everyone who could have had a chance to stop you!! When you asked me what you could do to make it up to me, I said _kill yourself_!!" she screamed, not heeding her grandmother's warning. "WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!" Tears coursed down her face.

Akira looked up, the Majin M became inscribed on his forehead. Bulma fell over her own feet as she backed away. She looked up at him in horror.

"Michelle. I swear to you. I am a changed man." He blinked a few times, slowly. His patience was rock solid. His eyes locked on hers. The final grain of her fear disappeared and she stepped up to him. Michelle took a deep breath and reeled back her fist.

Bulma winced as the young woman delivered a sound right hook to the Majin. Akira stood in place. Michelle screamed and began to pummel him with everything she had.

Almost an hour later, Bulma pulled her near exhausted granddaughter off of Akira. He got unsteadily to his feet and began to walk away.

"Come back here," Michelle muttered.

"Don't worry. You will never see me again," he said without turning around.

"Akira..." Bulma struggled with her own hatred, but believed in the truth. "It wasn't your fault." She helped Michelle to her feet.

"It has to be someone's, Bulma-san. It has to be someone's."

_To be concluded…_


	7. Vegetasei Revisited

**Mameko: Mother of Goku**

A Dragonball Z Fanfiction by Aoikami Sarah

**Part Seven : Vegeta-sei Revisited**

They sat in the waiting room for a few hours before the studio was ready. Chi-chi claimed that she was skeptical and talked mostly about the fact that it was a beautiful day and that she'd rather be outside in her garden than listen to this crackpot. Gohan on the other hand was very excited to see the medium.

They hadn't been able to get a private session because the waiting list was months long, but they had just made it in time to get tickets for the gallery. Mameko sipped a bottle of water and ran her hand over her rounded belly.

"I wonder what this John Edward guy is like," she commented.

"I bet he's flaky and new-agey," Chi-chi muttered and flipped through a magazine.

"I've seen the show," Gohan reminded his mother. "He's a normal guy."

"Except that he can talk to dead people," Mameko whispered, smiled and poked her daughter in law. Chi-chi laughed.

A large group was escorted into the studio and the Son party was seated down in front due to Mameko's very large, pregnant lady's belly.

Immediately, the trained fighters felt a charge rip through the audience. Everyone there was expecting to hear from their dead relatives. Their senses were heightened.

"So that's how he does it." Gohan muttered.

The women raised a brow.

"He must be able to read the _people_, not the dead."

Chi-chi and Mameko frowned, but had to stare when the young man at last came out and introduced himself to the audience. He was casually dressed and had a soft tone of voice. The women were immediately set at ease.

"Hello and welcome to Crossing Over, I'm John Edward. I may not get to you all, but please take what I do for others and reflect on it in your own lives." He put his hands together and sucked in a breath. "Ok, I'm... I'm right over here." John pointed directly at the Son Family.

Gohan nudged his mother. "Watch this," he whispered.

Chi-chi waved him off.

John paused. "I'm getting a very strong older male I see as being a father or grandfather figure. He's foreign. He's not from around here. I'm getting like a flute or a fife...?" he asked.

"Or a Piccolo?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah."

The half-Saiyajin folded his arms, but nodded.

"He's got a strong attachment to... rice?"

Gohan, Chi-chi and Mameko laughed.

"That's me."

"You're rice?" John asked. "Ok..." The audience laughed. "Well, he's saying something about... lemme guess, you got a relative named Bread?"

"Yeah!"

More laughter.

"Still living?"

"Yes."

"There's something that happened recently, a transition of some form to do with Bread that the musical foreigner is saying congratulations."

"She just started 1st grade last week."

John nodded. "Congratulations! This is his way of saying that he's around." The medium shook his head. "It's getting sorta crowded here. I have a bunch of people... men, women. They're all trying to get through at once. Wow. I mean like _lots_, folks."

Chi-chi and Mameko exchanged interested glances.

"And they all wanna go through me!" he laughed nervously. "I'm getting a severe sense of trauma. Like they were all there and then… whoosh."

Gohan blinked. "For us?"

"I think so. I'm getting... something about vegetables?"

Mameko gasped.

"What is it with you people?" he asked. "Never mind. I don't wanna know." He took a deep breath. "Wow. I've never heard anything like this before. There's like a chorus of people. It's like they're trying to say the same thing. They're showing me a crown, which I would see as being related to royalty, someone related to you is royalty or you are?"

"I don't think so..." Gohan said and looked to his friends.

"Vegeta Oujisama," Mameko whispered to him.

John furrowed his brows and concentrated. "They're expressing their thanks to the crown. Is there more than one prince? They're showing me three crowns. A big one, one below that and one below that. The younger, younger male royal."

Still doubtful, Gohan nodded.

"Something he did made these people very happy. Wow. There's honestly like millions of people. You guys know what I mean, though, right?"

"Yes," Mameko whispered. Not wanting to lead the medium, she kept her comments to herself. _'My people. The Saiyajin. Vegeta Oujisama said they were all killed at once and later, it was his son who killed Furiza,' _she thought.

The audience didn't seem to care how crazy that sounded. They all sighed in sympathy and awe.

"They're pulling back their collective energy. Please let the royals know what they've said here today. Thank you."

The audience applauded. John moved on, but he couldn't shake the intensity of the chorus he had heard: an entire nation fallen at once, reaching out to give their thanks for vengeance.

**.x.**

A few weeks later Mameko gave birth to her second son, Akira. Two years would go by before she would remember the medium's reading. Although Gohan had done his best to dispel its validity, saying that Edward was simply a good telepath, Mameko couldn't help but think it was real. She hadn't been thinking about her people at all that day. He had pulled them from the blue. Mameko had been hoping only to hear from Bardock one more time.

As she was folding the laundry one afternoon two years after their session, she saw a commercial for "Crossing Over With John Edward" and remembered. Mameko sat on the couch and watched the show as she watched Akira play on the floor. Inspired, she made plans to visit the Oujisama's at Capsule Corp.

**.x.**

Mameko sat across from Bulma and munched a biscotti.

"I'm so glad you're back to work here, Mameko-san. We've missed you," Bulma stated.

Mameko blushed. "Thank you. Is Vegeta-sama at home today?"

"Mm hm. What, thinking of a little spar?"

"Oh, no. I think my training days are over…" She blushed some more, thinking of the 'exercise' she was getting at home. "Besides. I have this little monster to attend to." Her son, Akira reached for the cookie. "No, no. Eat your Cheerios." Mameko handed him a zip-lock baggie that clearly did not interest the child. He pouted.

"Oh, biscotti won't hurt him. Hell, Trunks ate stuff you wouldn't believe when he was a little boy."

"That's because you were a rotten mother," Vegeta grumbled as he entered the room. His wife smacked him on the arm, lightly.

"Like you were around to know!" She took Akira from Mameko and baby-talked to him.

Mameko's whole head turned bright crimson. "Oujisama. Good afternoon."

"Hey," he answered and furrowed his brows at Akira. The fact that his mother was the one person left alive who knew him as a Prince kept Vegeta from making a snide comment about the boy's half-Jinzouningen heritage.

"Oujisama, I meant to tell you something…"

"Mm?" He raised a brow.

She explained to her skeptical prince as best she could about the medium's reading. "It was very odd that he should know such things. My grandson is convinced it's just a trick; that he didn't really channel our people at all."

"Even so," Vegeta sat on the arm of a sofa and looked out the window. The setting sun turned the sky dark orange.

"It's a pity. You're so strong now, Oujisama, you could wipe Furiza out just by looking at him!" Mameko cheered and clenched her fists. Vegeta's chest swelled noticeably. Bulma rolled her eyes.

"I don't see why you don't take the time machine back and do that very thing!"

Vegeta and Mameko practically fell over.

"_Time machine_!" the blue haired Saiyajin cried. "You mean you still have one?!"

"Oh sure, the one that that poor Trunks who got killed by Cell had. Cell used it to come here from the future. It's a little beat up, but since I monkeyed with Mirai Trunks's one, I can get ours up and running." Bulma continued to play with Akira, mumbling baby talk and making him giggle.

Mameko looked to Vegeta with huge, watery, puppy-dog eyes.

"No."

"No!?" the women shouted. Akira looked where they did and screwed up his mouth.

"But why, Oujisama? Why miss such an opportunity?"

"Even if we could save Vegeta-sei the Earth would be a ruin if I…" he snarled a bit, but admitted, "_and_ _Kakarotto_ were never to arrive." He turned back to the window. The sky was growing redder, just before the dusk. He'd obviously thought about this before.

"It's true," Bulma explained. "The time machine works in two ways. First it travels through time then on the way back it also goes through the dimensional planes. When it leaves point A it logs the signature of that dimension then you set the time to go back to. When it arrives the act of going back in time instantly creates another string of reality, call it point B. The time machine then logs that dimensional signature B, which is why Mirai Trunks was able to come back and visit us that time, from point A to point B, as it were."

Vegeta seemed unmoved by his wife's explanation having had years to understand it. Mameko gnashed her teeth. "I'm sorry, Bulma-san. I still don't understand."

"If you were to go back and kill Furiza, Vegeta-sei would be saved. Vegeta and Goku would grow up on their planet. They'd never come here. That dimension's Earth would… hm…" She made a face then laughed as something amusing came to mind.

Vegeta raised a brow and cocked his head just enough to see his wife laugh. "What's so funny about that? This world would be destroyed!"

"Well, no. Probably not. Pilaf would have gotten his wish to be emperor of the world. The Red Ribbon Army L would have taken over soon enough but Dr. Gero, having not been defeated by Goku would never make such powerful Jinzouningen, so there wouldn't be a Cell either. Oh. Conceivably, Buu would have eaten the galaxy by now, I guess…"

Vegeta scoffed.

"Ok, so you're _right_! There! I said it."

Still, he looked out the window. Bulma looked to Mameko, who was also staring out the window at the crimson sunset from where she sat. Quietly, Bulma took Akira into the kitchen.

"It's one of those sunsets, isn't it Oujisama?"

He nodded slightly.

"Now that I know it's possible, I really want to do it."

"What? Go back and save the world? We would be dooming this one, this world we now call home and all the people on it."

Mameko furrowed her brows and stood up. "Maybe we could warn them."

"Warn _who_? Yamcha? Muten Roshi?" he scoffed.

"No, we could warn _you_, Oujisama."

Vegeta straightened up and a slow grin spread across his face. They watched the red fade to black as they made their plans to go back to Vegeta-sei.

**.x.**

It was a tight fit, but somehow Vegeta and Mameko both settled into the cockpit of the famous Capsule 01 Time Machine. Bulma, Juunanagou, Akira and Goku saw them off. Goku rocked on the balls of his feet.

"But Mom," he whined. "I wanna come too!"

"I'm sorry, Kakarotto, there's no room!"

"Besides, you don't speak Saiyago and you don't remember what Vegeta-sei was like. You stay here," Vegeta snarled. He wasn't about to even entertain the idea of Kakarotto showing him up. He was going to be the one to take on Furiza this time, damn it.

Juunanagou adjusted Akira so he could see the ship take off. "Don't be totally shocked at the state of things when you get back," he warned.

"Oh please, you're far more organized that I am, silly Jinzouningen!" Mameko laughed. "I'll be back in two weeks. Take care of Akira. I'll miss you!"

"Miss you, too." He waved as the dome closed down over top of them. The time machine took off into the sky and in a flash it was gone. Juunanagou sighed and turned to his son-in-law.

"You ready, Nana?" Goku held his arms out and grinned.

"You were pretty good back there." The Jinzouningen smiled back. He handed Akira to his brother and folded his arms. "Thanks for helping me out."

"Hey, what's family for? Just do what I said. Ask Popo nice, but if he's being a jerk, tell him I sent ya, ok?"

"Sure thing. I'm going tomorrow. I need another day to think about this."

Goku nodded. "Well, ya got two weeks before Mom comes back!"

He nodded too, and both men took to the air. After a few hundred miles, they parted ways. Goku returned to the Son House and Juunanagou headed towards Karin Tower.

**.x.**

The time machine ripped easily through the fabric of time. Setting the coordinates for Vegeta-sei, Mameko looked to Vegeta and crossed her fingers. In a matter of moments they slid easy across the galaxy and came to rest in orbit above a ruby-red planet.

"Oh my…" Mameko gasped. She put her hand to her mouth and tears welled up in her eyes.

Vegeta stared at the orb and cleared his throat. Mameko snapped out of it and took the machine down to a clearing in a forest on the dark side of the planet. When the capsule depressurized and opened at last, they both sat for a moment and took in sounds and scents around them. Slowly, they emerged, and without speaking to each other agreed to wait a while before beginning their quest.

**Back on Earth**

Juunanagou sprawled out in the grass and watched the stars. It was nights like this that he missed the moon. "Not for long," he muttered, a smile spreading over his lips like a child trying to repress a fun secret. He laughed out loud. "I'm too used to keeping this inside! She's not even in this dimension right now!" The android put his hands behind his head. "All I have to do is rub a genie's belly and I get my wish."

**Vegeta-sei**

"Remember," Vegeta hissed from the alley they were hiding in, "I'm Trunks. You're Maks. We can't give away our identities. Who knows what that could mean for the versions of us here."

Mameko snickered. "I can't imagine it would hurt me much, but I understand, Oujisama."

"And none of that, either."

"Sorry, Trunks-sama!"

Vegeta smirked. He looked left and right then led her out onto the street where he stopped and pursed his lips.

"The palace is this way, Ou- Trunks-sama." Mameko pointed in the opposite direction.

"Right. I knew that." He led her the right way. Mameko repressed her laughter.

"So, how soon do you think I can start _my_ mission?"

"After we establish ourselves with the King and the Viceroy."

"Eeeeeee! I'm so nervous!"

"Hmph."

It took Bulma years to learn what Mameko, as a Saiyajin was accustomed to: the Saiyajin male's use of grunts to supplement emotional statements. She knew the last grunt meant, _'you think you're nervous? Try being fifty years older than you ought to be and waltzing into your house to meet your parents!'_

The prince led Mameko straight into the Palace's front gate into a teeming courtyard. Aliens and Saiyajin alike were busy going to and from the Royal Palace. They walked in through the front gate with no problems. Ahead lay the difficulty: a check-point at which visitors were asked to announce their intentions. Before Mameko could ask how they were supposed to get past it, Vegeta grabbed her and pulled her aside. Dragging her with him, quickly, the Prince pushed a certain brick and whisked them both through a hidden doorway.

The wall closed back up and left them in the darkness. With a firm hold on her upper-arm, Vegeta led Mameko through the narrow passage. There was no need to tell her to be quiet; she was awed. After almost a quarter of an hour of this, going round and round and up a few flights of oddly placed steps, he stopped.

"Ouji-"  
"Quiet."

They listened carefully. The dull murmur of a conversation could be heard on the other side of the thick walls. When it stopped, Vegeta grabbed her arm again and leaned against the wall. It gave way and spun out on a hidden hinge.

Mameko shielded her eyes, but opened them quickly in alarm.

"What is the meaning of this!" a deep, authoritative voice boomed. She gasped and focused. Standing at least a full foot taller than his son, King Vegeta was only a few yards away, but rather than attack he stood and stared.

"Ousama," Vegeta began. "You must pardon the intrusion, but this planet will be destroyed tomorrow if you do not allow me to help." He bowed slightly, but kept his eyes on his father.

The king did not summon any guards. He did not attack them himself. He stared back. "Who are you?"

"My name is Trunks. This woman is Maks. We are Saiyajin from the future."

Mameko blinked and bowed. "Ousama!" she encouraged. "Please, you must believe us. We are two of only a handful of survivors. We have come back in time to kill Furiza before he blows Vegeta-sei and everyone on it to atoms!"

Vegeta waved his hand and stepped forward. Mameko bit her lip and watched the two men. The king turned and watched them from the reflection of a large window. Mameko noticed the huge desk and shelves of books around them.

"I wouldn't believe you," King Vegeta drawled, "if I didn't already see it coming myself."

Mameko sighed. The King turned and stared at Vegeta again.

"Do you mean to tell me that you are strong enough to defeat him?"

"I do, Ousama." The Prince swallowed hard, but showed no obvious signs of nervousness.

The King squinted "You have no tail."

"And Maks has blue hair. A lot has happened since Vegeta-sei was destroyed."

"He really blows the whole damn thing up, does he?"

"He _did_, but I assure you he _won't_."

Slowly, a small smile tugged at the right corner of the king's mouth. "Then you're hired."

"I believe you have a meeting with the bastard tomorrow." Vegeta folded his arms. His whole posture told Mameko that he was relieved this stage of their quest was over. "I will accompany you as part of your guard. I will challenge Furiza and I will kill him."

"You, Sir have made my day!" the king shouted, his enthusiastic baritone almost distorting in Mameko's ears. He pressed a button and the door slid open. "Come, both of you. The evening meal is being set as we speak. There is plenty for us all."

When the King's back was turned, Mameko flashed a toothy grin and gave Vegeta the thumbs up. He simply smirked.

"Trunks-sama, may I…?"

Vegeta nodded. "My King, please excuse Maks. There is a matter with her ancestors she must attend to."

The King met Mameko's hopeful eyes and nodded. She bowed deeply. With a wave, he summoned two guards to escort her out. "Give these two scarlet passes. They have free reign."

Mameko got her scarlet pass - a red Saiyajin Empire pin - and asked her palace escorts how to find what she was looking for and she was off.

**.x.**

The King and his son walked down a long hall, empty of guards. Most of the royal guard had been recruited into the planet trade. The palace was a quiet, lonely place, Vegeta recalled. When he was growing up, he tried to spend as much time as possible outside its walls for of the simple fact that it was a huge bore. He was lost in this thought when the King suddenly stopped. Out of pure reflex, Vegeta snapped to attention, clicking his heels together. The king smirked. "You're used to following me. How is that?"

Scrambling for an answer, Vegeta tried not to outwardly lie. "I am accustomed to following a King, yes. You are correct, Your Highness." He was amazed that after nearly 50 years he still had something like that burned into his brain.

King Vegeta nodded slightly and walked on.

**.x.**

Mameko tried not to run down the corridors. Although the scarlet all-access pass the King had given her told anyone loyal to the King that she could do whatever she damn well pleased, the Empire Medical building was crawling with Furiza's men. Most of the Saiyajin doctors and nurses had been replaced long ago. She stopped to read a map on a wall and made a quick left.

Mameko stood in front of the Maternity ward window and stared. There were a dozen or more babies in their incubator pods. The one nurse on duty was fortunately Saiyajin. Mameko smiled at him when he looked up as she came in. She pointed to the red badge tagged to her armor and he stepped aside.

**.x.**

"Please find a place among the guard," the King commanded. "I will discuss your proposition with the Viceroy and we will meet after dinner."

Suddenly, Vegeta broke out in a cold sweat. The guard stood at attention and announced, "Her Excellency, Viceroy Kalifura." He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he bowed. She strode over to the royal table and was seated next to her husband.

Viceroy Kalifura stood a noticeable foot shorter than her impressive husband, but was none the less impressive herself. Her black eyes burned with confidence and pride where her husband's held a similar, but softer, almost friendlier glow. She scanned the room quickly and picked the stranger out. Her brows came together a bit and she pouted slightly.

"Ousama, who is that man?"

The King looked up from his plate. "Mm. That, Madam Viceroy, is our savior."

**.x.**

The images stopped coming as he gained consciousness. He was safe in the regen tank. But hadn't the world blown up? Was it a dream, or was this a dream now? It had seemed so real to him. Bardock tapped his fingers against his arm impatiently as the liquid drained away from him. He crawled out of the tank, tried to forget about the nightmare and asked about his fellow squadron members.

"They've been assigned to…"

"Excuse me?" Mameko asked as she poked her head into the recovery room.

"Ma'am! This is no place…"

Too nervous for protocol, she blurted, "Chief Science Officer Bardock. I must speak with you."

Bardock clenched the tiny towel he had been given tightly around his hips. He noticed the scarlet pass. "Gimme a sec?" he asked, offended.

"Oh, sure. Right." Mameko blushed and turned around. "When you're ready."

Bardock put his uniform back on, all the while never taking his eyes off the woman's back. Her blue tail twitched left to right impatiently.

She led him down to the first empty room she could find and shut the door. "You don't know me, but I need you to do me a favor," she drawled in her best Earthling accent: that funny, flat way of talking that her son had.

"Ok." He raised a brow.

"Vegeta-sei was going to be destroyed tomorrow."

The visions were back. Bardock clutched his head and cried out.

"Are you ok!?"

"Y-yes, but…" he stuttered. He could only partially hear and see her. The other half of his senses were showing him Furiza and a man standing in a desert. With a single blow, the man annihilated him. "It changed…"

"What changed?"

"My nightmare. When I was in the regen tank, I had a nightmare of Furiza blowing up the planet, but just now, I saw him get blown up!"

Mameko squinted. "Since when can you see the future?" she asked skeptically, dropping the phony accent.

"The future?"  
She straightened up and cleared her throat. "I am from the future. My name is Maks. My friend, Trunks will destroy Furiza tomorrow afternoon."

"Does he look a little like Vegeta Ousama?"

She repressed a grin. "Yes, a little."

"Then that's what I saw." Bardock leaned against a wall and rubbed his eyes. "Funny thing for the Chief Science officer to believe, don't you think?"

"Not at all because I know it's true. Tomorrow, Vegeta-sei's suffering ends. Furiza will die."

Bardock grinned. "Maybe it's 'cause you remind me of someone I know, but I believe you."

Mameko turned her back to hide her blush. "There is one thing you must do, Bardock," she began.

"Whoa, hold up. I have to check back in with my squadron."

"No, this is more important. You must find Mameko and rescue her."

He stared at the back of her head.

"How do you know?"

"Quickly!" Mameko started for the door. "Your son is in the maternity ward of Empire Medical and will be there until you pick him up yourself. His name is Kakarotto. But you must rescue Mameko now. Take her north, far from any of Furiza's influence. Stay there until tomorrow afternoon. You will know when Furiza is no more."

"But…"

"Please!" Mameko turned her head enough to see his expression. He looked lost. "She's crying right now, I guarantee it." With that, Mameko tried to run from the room, but he caught her arm.

"Mameko?"

Her eyes met his. "I'm called Maks." They stood there for a moment, waiting for the other to make a move. "Rescue Mameko as soon as you can."

He let go. She slipped out the door and ran back to the palace.

**.x.**

After a rushed dinner, Mameko and Vegeta were summoned to the throne room. Seated on his throne was the King and standing to his right was the Viceroy. Before he could introduce the strangers from the future, Kalifura stepped forward.

"I have been told you are to save us all from certain destruction," she nearly shouted. The sweat stood out on Vegeta's face.

"That is my intention, Viceroy."

"And we should believe you why? What makes you think, even if you are a Saiyajin, that you could possible hope to stand against Furiza?"

Vegeta grit his teeth. "In truth, Viceroy, the only things stopping me from eliminating him from the universe right this minute are decorum and your safety. I need to get him out in the open so that no Saiyajin experience harm. The only way I can think to do this is to accompany His Majesty to their meeting tomorrow afternoon. There, I will lure Furiza out and send him to hell."

Kalifura was silent. Her husband raised a brow.

"Very well," she remarked and turned her back to them. "You are dismissed, Trunks, was it?"

"Yes, Your Excellency." Vegeta and Mameko bowed deeply before leaving the room.

Kalifura's eyes burrowed into her husband.

"That went well…"

"There's something strange about this tailess Trunks person," she cut him off. "Do you sense it?"

"Yes."

"And they told you they were from about fifty years in the future?"

"Yes. I'm sure it's him."

Kalifura spun around and winced. "It can't be!"

"I forgot to mention. They came in through the bookcase in the study."

She gasped. "But why does he call himself Trunks? Why is he being so devious?"

"I'm sure he has his reasons. We'll know tomorrow."

The Viceroy turned back to her mate. "Tomorrow."

**.x.**

The 53rd platoon's barracks were dark and quiet. Silently, he snuck in past the night guard, who moaned a bit as he was stabbed in the arm with a potent sedative. Quickly, he typed on a small keypad next to the guard and deleted tomorrow afternoon's Planet Trade mission. Bardock's teeth flashed with irrepressible delight in the pale glow from a light-pole outside. He slipped through the shadows and followed his nose.

Mameko gasped as his hand closed over her mouth.

"Shh," he urged. "It's me, to the rescue."

"Bardock?!" she hissed. "But…"

"Come on." He scooped her up into his arms and ran a few steps till they were out the door, then took the sky.

"What are you doing? We'll be killed!"

"Your welcome!" He laughed. "Mameko, tomorrow Furiza's gonna bite the big one. It doesn't matter what we do. Everything's gonna be just fine." He waited for her to call him crazy, but she didn't reply. "Mameko? Mameko?!" He put on an extra burst of speed. "Mameko!"

"I'm ok. Sort of…"

He stopped so he could hear her better. "What's the matter?!"

"I had our son two days ago. The commanders, they keep hitting me…"

"Mameko, don't worry. We're gonna land soon and find you a doctor." He took off again for the north.

Mameko rubbed her cheek against his chest. "What was that you were saying about Furiza?"

**.x.**

"Oujisama?" Mameko asked as she walked out onto the balcony outside their room.

"Go back to bed. And don't call me that."  
"I'm sorry, but I can't sleep." She smiled. "Wow, what a view!"

"Mm." Saiyajin male for: _'I agree and am also experiencing great feelings of nostalgia.'_

She nodded and stood next to him. The first of Vegeta-sei's two suns was about an hour from rising. Not until the second and brighter sun had risen would dawn be over. It was a slow and beautiful process enjoyed by all Saiyajin. This morning, Vegeta and Mameko watched the suns rise for what should have been the last time. Everything was about to change.

**.x.**

When at last he saw the twinkling of a few lights in a secluded valley, Bardock dropped down and jogged carefully, so as not to jostle his load, towards the nearest tavern. The night-clerk was flipping through an outdated magazine and raised a cautious brow as the warrior, still wearing his battered battle armor and the woman in the night-gown came to the counter.

"We'd like a room please."

"Mm hm…" the clerk eyed Mameko with a look of casual disapproval, as if he'd seen this sort of thing many times. "Name please?"

"Bardock."

Mameko clutched the counter. Trying to stand on her own feet was proving more difficult than she had previously assured her mate. "Nnnnn…" she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of pain overtook her.

"Mameko!" Bardock laced his arm under hers and held her up. "And please, can you summon a medic for my wife?"

The clerk looked astounded. "Yer wife?" he hastily finished the sign-in and handed Bardock the key. "I'll see whut I can do fer ya."

Mameko's eyes fluttered open and the grey light of early morning made the unfamiliar surroundings even more indistinct. "Bardock…?"

"I'm here." His voice came from her left. She turned her head. He was sitting in a chair, watching her.

"Did I pass out?"

He nodded. "I didn't want to leave you. We have to find you a doctor."

"Is it safe?"

"Well, I think we're at least 500 kilometers from Imperial City."

This seemed to relax her. She smiled at her mate and reached out her hand. "I missed you like crazy."

"Same here, Kiddo."

"Kiddo…" she growled affectionately. "Just because you've got 20 years on me, Bardock…"

He laughed, got up and took her hand. "Even when you're a hundred, you'll still be my Kiddo."

"Pedophile," she joked. Their mirth was interrupted by a brisk knock at the door. Bardock leaned against it.

"Who is it?"

"Somebody asked fer a docter?" came the muffled reply.

A quick look to Mameko for her approval and Bardock opened the door. The doctor was an older man with graying hair and a typical, little, green medic's bag. Bardock thanked him profusely and shut the door.

After his examination, which included a strange mix of modern non-invasive technology and good old fashioned poking around, the doctor concluded that Mameko had suffered some internal injuries at the hands of her captors which were most likely infected. He prescribed and handed the young woman a small bottle of antibiotics, recommended bed rest and took his leave. When Bardock stopped him and offered a large sum of money to pay for his services, the doctor simply tipped his wide-brimmed hat and smiled through his mustache.

"It ain't every day ya see a planet-trader with a missus," he said and winked, knowing full well that they were breaking Furiza's anti-bonding law. "You take care a that girl, Mister."

**.x.**

With his red badge, Vegeta got no flack from the Guard as he marched to the throne room after lunch. He knelt before the King and the Viceroy. King Vegeta led him and a contingent of the Guard out of the room.

"No one makes a move, even if Furiza lays a hand on me."

"Your Majesty!" some of them cried.

"Leave everything to Trunks, here. Nothing is going to go wrong."

One of the Guard, a female who was perhaps half the prince's age, whispered to one of her compatriots. "I do not trust this stranger."

"Nor I, but we must trust Ousama." They looked away quickly as they realized Vegeta was giving them the patented look-of-death.

He laughed inwardly_. 'Fools… if only you knew how trustworthy I am.'_

**.x.**

The Viceroy startled Mameko as she let herself into the quarters she and Vegeta had been keeping.

"Oh," Kalifura said, half startled - half disappointed. "It's you."

"Yes, Your Excellency." Mameko leapt up, throwing down the book she was reading and bowed to her ruler.

"Shouldn't you be with Trunks?" She squinted.

"He's going to go all out on Furiza. It's far too dangerous."

Kalifura glanced at the book as Mameko picked it up. "Cultural Development Of The Northern Lands and Great Wastes?" she asked as she read the title. "Not exactly light reading."

"No, Your Excellency." She put it on top of a stack of other materials: memory sticks, printed texts, maps and images of people and places of historical significance.

"You must be an historian," the Viceroy mused and circled the table.

"In the future there are only a few of us left, and only Trunks-sama and I ever lived on Vegeta-sei." Mameko bit her tongue. Vegeta had warned her not to say too much.

"I see…" The Viceroy stared at her. Mameko sat down on the window-seat and wrung her hands. The afternoon suns shone through the panes and warmed her already nervously perspiring body. "Maks, what exactly is your relation to Trunks?"

"Um…" Mameko squirmed. _'What is she getting at?!'_ "Well, I'm his traveling partner."

"That's not what I mean. You call him -sama. He must be above you."

"Oh! That! Well, yes. He's quite a lot older than I am." _'Oh, please say she buys that, please!'_

"I see."

Mameko sighed a little, but by the tone of Kalifura's voice, it didn't sound as if she was satisfied. Mameko looked out the window. Far below she could see people milling around in the streets; thousands of people who would die shortly if it weren't for Vegeta. She smiled at the thought and shivered in anticipation.

"Take me to him."

"E-excuse me?!" Mameko looked quickly to the Viceroy. She had her hands on the hips of her elaborate gown and was frowning severely at her. "I can't! Please, Your Excellency!"

"Nonsense! Do as I say!" She stomped her tiny foot. "You obey the Prince, but you deny me?! Rubbish!"

"But Oujisama'll kill me if...!" Mameko clapped her hand to her mouth.

A slow smile spread on Kalifura's face. She laughed. "I won't tell him you told me if you take me. We don't have to get close, just enough to see it with our own eyes. I want to see my son in action. I want to see Furiza die by his hands. You will _not_ deny me, Maks."

Mameko grit her teeth but nodded and led her to the Great Wastes.

**.x.**

The sun shone down on Juunanagou as he lay in the grass outside his cabin. His artificial irises adjusted to the light until they were nearly pin size. He had paid close attention to everything in the last twenty-four hours: the way the wind felt on his face, the smell of the forest, the taste of the muffins Mameko had left him: everything. He wanted to remember how it was. He had prepared himself. Satisfied that he was ready, Juunanagou stood up, dusted himself off and rocketed past Karin Tower and finally came up over the lip of the lookout.

Dende didn't have to open his eyes. He sat in lotus position and called to the visitor.

"Hello, Juunanagou. How are you this morning?"

"I'm well, Kami-sama."

"I heard that Mameko and Vegeta are on a bit of a vacation," he laughed a little and stood up.

"So they are. I bet you know why I'm here, don't you?"

"Indeed I do." Dende smiled at the Jinzouningen. "You've thought this over very well, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have."

He nodded and summoned Mr. Popo.

**.x.**

Mameko's eyes slowly opened and for a moment she thought she was still in a dream of the past. Bardock was dozing lightly in a chair to her left. The sunlight poured into a puddle below the window. He woke when she sat up.

"Feelin' better?"

"Mm," she nodded. "It must be almost noon. Has it happened yet? Is Furiza dead?!" she asked, excitedly.

"Not yet." Bardock stood and stretched all the way down to his tail, which shook as he arched his back. "When it happens, I think we'll know."

Mameko blinked at him. He was wearing a pair of baggy pants, northern-style leather boots, a white boat-neck shirt and an old officer's jacket. "Where did you get the duds there, Cowboy?"

"Consignment shop. I had the doc look after you while I stepped out. Gotcha some too." He smirked and tossed her a paper bag. "And some breakfast. In case you didn't want to leave the room just yet."

Mameko pulled the thin, white nightgown over her head. "I wish I was feeling better." She smiled as she put her new dress on. "Then we'd both have a reason to not leave the room just yet."

Bardock simply hummed, Saiyajin male for: _'I agree. I want to jump on you but I want you to get better.'_

Mameko smoothed out the cute, country, jumper-style dress her mate had found her and was polite enough not to mention that his fashion sense was dead. She would dress him better later. "So, when are the fireworks?" She went to the window and looked out at the quaint, little town they had found.

"Imagine a being as powerful as he is suddenly getting annihilated," Bardock smirked with pleasure as he thought of it himself. "Something like that, we'll be able to feel it." He watched her from his seat, leaning back in the chair. Noticing the familiar way she held her hands behind her back; the same what that the blue-haired woman had. That woman had smelled like Mameko, there was no mistaking it. And she knew about the future… He lost himself in his thoughts.

"Hello, Bardock?" Mameko cocked her head to the side. "You in there?"

"Unhn." He watched her standing there in the puddle of noon-day sunlight. Her tawny brown hair shimmered. Her smile almost glowed. "Come here."

"Mm?"

He patted his lap. "Com'ere," he coaxed her again. She giggled and sat down. Even though she was tall for a Saiyajin woman, she always felt petit next to her mate. He was so strong and his hands dwarfed hers. He wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head against his chest. "I missed you so much, Kiddo."

They sat like that for a long while. He stroked her hair and kissed her face and hands.

"I want to find our son."

"Beat ya to it."

"No!" she beamed. "Really?!"

He nodded. "He's still in the maternity ward. He'll be there till we come get him." Quickly, before she could ask, he added. "His name is Kakarotto."

**.x.**

The king's entourage filed down the corridors past sniggering soldiers of various alien species. "Fools!" "Hope they've got life insurance!" "See ya later, Monkeys!"

Vegeta growled, but his father gave him a warning look. Saiyajin male for: _'You'll get your chance.' _He took a deep breath and continued.

_'Furiza…'_ Vegeta thought. _'I haven't laid eyes on you since my son destroyed you all those years ago.'_ He grinned very evilly. _'Now it's my turn.'_ Any repulsion or anger he might have had was washed aside by the anticipation of what he was sure would be a very satisfyingly one-sided battle.

Still, when he finally saw him, flanked by Dodoria and Zarbon, a chill ran down the prince's spine. This was the beast who killed his people, his family and his future. This was the beast who destroyed worlds in a second. This was the beast who tortured him for decades. It had taken years and an Earthling woman's patience to undo the damage he had caused. Today was not just the day Vegeta would save his world; it was the day he would get his revenge.

"Furiza…" the King began. "We have come to declare our independence."

Zarbon and Dodoria laughed. Furiza jumped down from his hover-throne and wearing a smarmy grin approached the King. Much to his surprise, someone stepped between them.

"No one simply approaches Vegeta Ousama."

"What is this?" Furiza looked up at the stranger, annoyance creeping over his white face.

Vegeta folded his arms. "Bow."

"What?!"

"You heard me. Bow to the King. It is the least you can do, since you are unworthy to even breathe the same air as He."

The veins in Furiza's head stood out and throbbed. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"You want to know?" Vegeta placed a hand on Furiza's shiny head, pressing down just enough to make him bow. "Come with me!" He raised two fingers to his forehead, silently thanked Kakarotto for finally showing him how to Shukan Ido and disappeared.

**.x.**

"Are you _certain_ he'll be here?" a petulant Kalifura asked.

Mameko scanned the horizon with a high-powered scouter. "He said so, maybe they're still getting ready?"

"Maks, you best not have lied to me," the Viceroy snarled.

"No, Viceroy. He told me he would fight Furiza in the middle of the Great Wastes." She sighed and got back into the air-car that had brought them there. "Perhaps we could scout around some more." Kalifura ignored her and watched the emptiness. "I did lie to you."

"Oh?" Kalifura glared at her and frowned.

"My name is Mameko, not Maks. I'm alive right now, hopefully."

"I see." She opened her mouth, perhaps to apologize or ask more about Mameko's past, but a sharp beeping sound startled them both. Kalifura jumped into the car and snatched the scouter away from her. "It's them!"

"E-Excellency!" Mameko whined.

"Come on, get us closer!"

"No! We mustn't. You don't know what kind of power they have. We must find shelter!"

Kalifura began to order her differently, but Mameko floored the pedal and the car took off in the opposite direction.

"Wait!!" Kalifura screeched. "Wait! They're over there!" When the car had come to a halt in a deep arroyo, the Viceroy slapped Mameko across the face. "How _dare_ you defy me!!"

Mameko paused, the hairs on the back of her neck told her that soon the battle would begin. If she could just keep the woman down and safe until then, she wouldn't have to explain how dangerous it would be topside.

**.x.**

Juunanagou grimaced and reached a hand out to touch the black, shiny, round genie's belly.

"Is ok. Mr. Popo no bite!" Mr. Popo laughed.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Juunanagou swallowed deep and rubbed the stomach a few times. He looked up to Popo who nodded in approval. "I wish… I wish I was a Saiyajin!"

Juunanagou's eyes went wide as he felt his body shift. He fell to his knees and dry-heaved. His voice wouldn't come, else he would have screamed. His strength left him and he crashed to his side.

The pain from the fall was the first thing he was aware of then the sound of his lungs breathing and his heart racing. He opened his eyes. The light was so bright it stung. In a few moments he adjusted and sat up. Juunanagou rubbed his sore shoulder and was fascinated with the texture of his leather jacket under his fleshy hands. He laughed nervously.

"Are you all right, Juunanagou?" Dende asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Mm," he answered and laughed again. "Everything is so different!"

"Not _bad_, though?"

"I don't know yet." He smiled and gingerly stood up. Juunanagou let out a sharp cry of alarm as something brushed by his leg. Dende laughed heartily.

"Did you forget that a tail is part of the Saiyajin package?"

Juunanagou tugged on it and giggled some more. "My kid is gonna freak out when he sees that his dad has a tail now, too!" An inspired glimmer lit his eyes. "Speaking of my kid…" Stepping back a few paces, Juunanagou tried to focus his newfound life energy. In a moment he was floating. "I'm gonna go show him!"

"Don't forget, you don't have an endless power supply anymore. You'll need to eat and sleep like the rest of us, now. Don't go out over the ocean and get too tired to fly!" Dende warned.

"Thanks a million, Kami-sama, Popo-san!" Saiyajin Juunanagou waved as he awkwardly took to the air.

"You welcome!" Popo beamed and waved back.

"Good luck!" Kami cheered.

**.x.**

The wind whipped dust around the few, massive protruding rocks in the Northern Plain. Vegeta had carefully selected this location as being far from any living beings. He touched down, never taking his eyes off his enemy as he too set foot on the desert floor.

"This ought to be amusing," Furiza purred. "I was just thinking about destroying this planet this morning and you've definitely sealed the deal. Killing a monkey as insolent as you before I do will be fun, I think."

"Too bad you won't put a scratch on me, never mind live to see tomorrow," the prince shot back. He stood with his arms folded and a calm, confident look on his face.

Furiza's similar expression fell. "Such total insolence!" He lifted his hand and shot a large energy attack toward the Saiyajin. It didn't seem that Vegeta had moved to dodge, rather that the blast had gone right through him. Furiza boggled and looked to his feet. The dust had been disturbed where Vegeta had side-stepped, two quickly for his eyes to catch. When he looked back up Vegeta was in his face and landed a right hook that sent him crashing into one of the protruding rocks. Then the fight was truly on. Furiza flew back to him and attempted to do the same, but found that he was blocked every time. Vegeta smiled and didn't seem to be breaking a sweat at all.

**.x.**

In the arroyo Mameko had struggled to keep the Viceroy from running toward the scene when they felt them arrive, but the air pressure built up so quickly the two women were awed into stillness. "Is that my son doing that?" Kalifura asked quietly. "Or is it just Furiza?"

"By the feel of it, I'd say it's both." Mameko shuddered. "Will you stay here with me, Viceroy?"

Kalifura nodded as another shockwave of energy pulsed over them like a bomb.

**.x.**

Furiza panted and cursed under his breath. "How is it that a monkey is able to do this to me?!" he hissed.

Vegeta cracked his neck. "As much as I'd like to take my sweet time killing you in the most painful way possible," he said, flicking a speck of dust off his black armor. "There's going to be a huge party when the Saiyajin hear you're dead and I'd really like to get that started."

A blood vessel became pronounced on Furiza's forehead. "I've had about enough of your mouth," he said and transformed into his second stage.

Vegeta clicked his tongue. "You're going to need one more to even think about coming near me."

"What?!"

Vegeta grinned wide. "One more transformation. I know you've got three. You'd better bring it out." He clenched his fists and powered up to Super Saiyajin. "This is my stage one," he remarked and kept going. "Stage two, three," he said, easily pushing his limits as far as they'd go. The hatred he felt towards his enemy and his exhilaration for what he was about to do made it easy. His coloring changed yet again to black and red. "Four." Furiza had pushed to level three and stood staring in disbelief at Super Saiyajin 4 Vegeta. "It ends now," Vegeta said calmly and concentrated on his attack. Furiza flew at him. When the connected the light was so bright it shone over half the planet.

**.x.**

Mameko stood at the window and waved down to Bardock as he approached the inn with lunch in his arms. They both turned toward the north as the flash brightened the afternoon sky. "That must be it!" Mameko cried. "The sign!"

A loud boom followed and they were the first to spread the news that Furiza was dead.

**.x.**

Vegeta walked slowly around the area, scanning for any remaining bits of Furiza but he was more than sure he got it all. He wouldn't be resurrected this time. A high-pitched sound caught his attention and he turned to see his mother flying across the plain toward him followed closely by Mameko. "Che," he scoffed.

"I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut!" he barked at Mameko as they arrived.

"I… Oujisama? What happened to you?"

He was still in SSJ4 mode and grinned at the shocked look on his mother's face. "Madame Viceroy," he said and bowed. Slowly and for effect he powered down, stepping through the other levels of Super Saiyajin as he did so.

"Y-you're a Super Saiyajin?" she asked.

He nodded.  
"And you destroyed Furiza?"

Again he nodded.

Tears formed in Kalifura's eyes. "That's my boy," she said softly.

Vegeta frowned. "I beg of you, do not expect the same wonders from your son."

"But…!"

"The trials I have had to endure will not exist for him now that I have saved you. He will be strong, but this kind of strength comes from necessity, not talent."

"Oujisama…" Mameko muttered, amazed.

Kalifura pouted. "I will take that into account. But don't think I'll go easy on… you." She couldn't help but smile. "I'm so proud of you!" she beamed.

Vegeta puffed out his chest. "Let's go."

Mameko laughed with joy. "Let's party!!"

"Well, I have some cleaning up to do yet. Furiza's goons and his father King Cold will be troublesome if I don't take them out."

The women agreed and all three took to the air and headed south.

**.x.**

The parties seemed never ending. Day after day another feast was declared and the guest of honor, "Future Trunks" as he was ironically dubbed was asked to appear at each and every one of them. Mameko noted that although Vegeta usually dreaded Earthling celebrations and their bland activities of idle chat and formal dining, the prince relished a Saiyajin feast. The long tables laden with game, the long nights and potent drink followed by lazy mornings recovering were much more his speed. They both agreed that they would stay as long as the King wanted them to, as they would return to their time and place only a day after they left it.

Mameko laughed. "It feels a bit like cheating, doesn't it?" she asked as she modeled an honorary suit of armor she'd been given. "Too bad I can't fit this in the Time Machine…" she grumbled. Vegeta grinned and dug into his bag. He clicked something in his hand and tossed in into the middle of the room. A ten foot long storage unit exploded from a capsule. "Oujisama, you're a genius!"

He shrugged. A knock at the door to their suite drew their attention. "Enter," he commanded.

"Excuse me, Trunks-sama," a familiar voice called as a couple were shown into the room. "Is Maks here?"

Vegeta indicated to the blue haired woman and stared at them. "Who are you?" he asked.

"My apologies, I'm Chief Science officer Bardock. This is my mate, Mameko and our son…"

"Kakarotto…" Vegeta stood up.

Bardock looked surprised but Mameko jogged toward them. "I'm so glad you could come!" she chimed. She stared at the slightly younger, normal version of herself holding the baby, standing beside her bonded mate and tears sprang to her eyes. "Oujisama, would you excuse us for a while?"

Vegeta stopped to examine the family before leaving without a fuss. He stared at the baby and chuckled. "That's going to be one hell of a kid," he commented as he left the room.

"Thank you!" Bardock replied.

Maks sat down and bid them come and do the same. "Are you alright?" Mameko asked her older self.

Maks nodded. "More than alright. This is a dream come true for me in a way to see you reunited. A real dream!"

"I'm so sorry," Bardock said softly. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for the two of you to lose everything."

Maks nodded. "It was pretty shocking for me. Ou- er… Trunks-sama had a rougher time, I think."

Mameko looked to Bardock and handed him her baby. To Maks' surprise she got up, sat next to her and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry, Mameko."

The blue haired woman gasped. "You know?!"

"You couldn't fool me," Bardock agreed. "And when she saw you she knew herself instantly."

Mameko pulled back and held Maks' hands. "Thank you so much, me!" she laughed through her tears.

They talked for a few hours before the next feast was to begin. Maks got to hold her infant son and give them some idea of what he'd be like when he was a man. They were astounded by her stories but swore to keep them secret.

**.x.**

Vegeta wandered down the hall and heard a rapid set of steps approaching him from around the corner. He stopped in his tracks as the young Saiyajin nearly collided with him. "Why don't you watch where you're…!" the child began to berate him but stopped short and stared up at the man. "Trunks, is it?" he asked with his face screwed up in a scowl that was all-too familiar.

Vegeta was almost speechless. Almost. "It is. You should watch where you're going yourself, kid. You almost plowed into this planet's savior, you know."

The child spat. "My mother says that I have to aspire to be as great as you but I don't think you're so great!"

He raised a brow. "Oh? I just killed Furiza. What have you done lately?"

This was too much for the kid. His face turned red and he opened his mouth to shout at Trunks again but he put his finger to his forehead as if to flick it. The child cringed instinctively. "Hey," He opened his eyes when nothing happened. "Why did you do that?"

"So you'd recognize that I'm just like you," he said carefully and crouched down. "Listen well, little Prince," Vegeta addressed his younger self. "What I have done is pretty amazing, but what you can do is even more amazing."

"Oh?" he asked, interested.

"You can lead your people into the future."

The young prince clicked his tongue. "That's not cool! I want to be powerful!"

"And so you shall!" Vegeta answered. "You should be grateful every morning you wake on this world and it's still here. You should be proud that your people are strong and alive." He stood and began to walk past him down the hall. "In my time they are gone and I am virtually alone. I think you know how that feels having spent so much time away from here. Imagine a lifetime of that and worse and be grateful."

The young prince Vegeta was left speechless in the hall.

**.x.**

The morning the King, Viceroy and Prince were to see the saviors from the future back to their own time Bardock, Mameko and Kakarotto were allowed to be present and waved until long after the machine was out of sight.

In the following year, many children were born to Saiyajin parents who would never have lived had it not been for them who were appropriately named Trunks and Maks.

** Back on Earth, Present Time **

When the time machine popped back into existence in its dimension of origin, all of Vegeta and Mameko's friends were there to welcome them home. Vegeta was quiet, but his grin was all anyone needed to know that he had a good time. Mameko most of the talking and excited to tell the story she spoke quickly.

"And there was… wait, where's Juunana?" she asked craning her neck around a group of Son family members who were gathered before her. They smiled at each other and parted to reveal her husband. He handed Akira to Chi-chi and approached Mameko. Her mouth opened to ask what was different about him. There was something about the way he walked, the glisten in his eyes, the scratch on his chin. "Juunana, what happened to your… how do you have…?" she tried to figure out what had changed. He smirked and stopped hiding his tail.

"You…!" she cried, clapping her hands over her mouth in shock. Everyone laughed. "You're a…!"

"Saiyajin," he answered. "I hope that's acceptable, Oujisama?" he asked Vegeta who stopped staring at him and chuckled. He simply nodded his approval.

Mameko squealed with delight and threw her arms around Juunanagou.

Everyone stayed up very late at Capsule as Mameko and Vegeta told their story and handed souvenirs of Vegeta-sei to everyone. When the last few people went home in the wee hours of the morning Mameko bowed to Vegeta. Juunanagou did the same and Vegeta laughed again. "That's going to take some getting used to," he said. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank you, Oujisama," he replied.

"And thanks to you, Mameko," Vegeta said, looking up at the brightening horizon. "The suns are rising on Vegeta-sei this morning."

She blushed and her tail wagged nervously. "It was you who destroyed Furiza, Oujisama."

"But if you hadn't come here, I would never have found the passion to make it happen. I believed that my world was long lost. You changed that, and for that I thank you."

She bowed again, glowing with pride. "It was fun," she said. "I think it's time to go home, right, Juuanana?"

He nodded and Vegeta waved as they took to the sky and headed north for their cabin home.

**END**


End file.
